SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Forty years ago, Bruce Hornsby broke out with "The Way It Is."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE WAY IT IS")
BRUCE HORNSBY: (Singing) That's just the way it is. Some things'll never change.
SIMON: And it remains his biggest hit. It's been sampled by dozens of R&B, rap and electronic artists. And since then, Bruce Hornsby has performed many musical styles himself, including rock, bluegrass, jazz and classical, even synth-driven pop.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INDIGO PARK")
HORNSBY: (Singing) Oh, let these days be your delight as if you're living in a dream. Watch these drawn lines trace your life's most scintillating scenes.
SIMON: And that's the title track from Bruce Hornsby's "Indigo Park," a new album that puts his wide range fully on display. Bruce Hornsby joins us now. Thanks so much for being with us.
HORNSBY: Well, it's nice to be here, Scott. I have to make a little correction there. Synth-driven pop - there's no synths on this record. The synth part of the arrangements is being filled on this record by a Rickenbacker 12-string, a la Roger McGuinn. So in certain cases...
SIMON: Oh, my gosh.
HORNSBY: Yes. So that's the fun of it. It may sound like a synth, but it's not. It's my Byrdsian (ph) moment, hopefully.
SIMON: Well, we meant it as a compliment, in any case.
HORNSBY: Yeah. No, I know. It's all fine. I just thought it'd be - just for accuracy's sake.
SIMON: What's it like 40 years out from "The Way It Is"? Do you ever get tired of playing that song?
HORNSBY: Well, I went for a time where I did. I was being kind of stubborn about it. I thought, if the crowd was there to hear "The Way It Is" only, well, maybe I should have just played the first song, like a lot of my friends do - have had one hit. But now I really embrace it, as I come to feel that it's become a song for the ages. It seems to be - especially with the hip-hop community's embrace of it. So really, now I don't get tired of it. I have different versions of it. There's the solo piano version and the band version. And so the short answer is no. I'm not tired of it. I embrace it.
SIMON: Let me ask you about some of the noted collaborations on this album.
HORNSBY: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
SIMON: Well, let's - why not? Let's begin with you and Bonnie Raitt and the song "Ecstatic."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ECSTATIC")
BRUCE HORNSBY AND BONNIE RAITT: (Singing) Made my eyеs jump 'round me, made my heart go beatin' fast. Heard the roar come sounding. Try to make the ecstatic last. (Vocalizing) Ay-ya-ya-ya-ya.
HORNSBY: We've just remained friends. We've done benefits together through the years. But I had this song, inspired by AAU basketball chants that we, as AAU basketball parents, would chant with our fellow parents in the stands. I always wanted to write a song using those chants, and so I did. And I thought, Bonnie, if she was into it, then I wanted her to do it. And she embraced it and did such a great job. I'm so glad we mixed her loud in the mix. It was fun hearing that little snippet that you played.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ECSTATIC")
HORNSBY AND RAITT: (Vocalizing) My-my-my-my-my.
SIMON: And let me ask you about working with Bob Weir, cofounder of the Grateful Dead, and, of course, left us earlier this year.
HORNSBY: Yeah. That hits so hard. It's a tough one. Bobby and I played together for a really long time. And so, look, he was a great friend of mine, and I had this song that I'd recorded for this record, a song I'd written with Robert Hunter, the transcendent lyricist of the Dead. So I ran into him at a Robbie Robertson tribute concert at the Forum in LA. And I said, hey, I've got this song. Would you if you have any interest in singing a duet with me?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIGHT AS WELL BE ME, FLORINDA")
BRUCE HORNSBY AND BOB WEIR: (Singing) Might as well be me, Florinda, to love you through thick and thin.
HORNSBY: And so it was beautiful to have him on there. And, again, it hits a little harder now that he's not around anymore. This certainly has to be at least one of his last recorded performances.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIGHT AS WELL BE ME, FLORINDA")
HORNSBY AND WEIR: (Singing) Rock my soul with a two-by-four. Whatever it was, well, it ain't no more.
SIMON: What do these collaborations put into your music? Do they help keep you fresh?
HORNSBY: I think it helps keep everything fresh for myself and anyone listening. It's just fun to get someone else's take on something. I think it just enhances and broadens your palette, broadens the colors that you're able to paint with.
SIMON: Let me ask you about the song "Silhouette Shadows."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SILHOUETTE SHADOWS")
HORNSBY: (Singing) Silhouettes and shadows. Ancient scenes and cryptic dreams. Silhouettes and shadows. I sort of remember in the dim light, in the sharp outline, a cardboard cutout. Shaded recollections. One life in reflection.
SIMON: I found this song chilling and maybe a bit because we're, you know, we're age peers, as they say.
HORNSBY: Yeah.
SIMON: But, boy, how does looking back and lining up what you've seen in history change as you go on in life, do you think?
HORNSBY: Well, let's see. You look at it differently as you get older. You look at everything maybe a bit different. And in this case, the "Silhouette Shadows" song features four verses that are all reminiscences, the first three, mostly coming from my music school days. But this last one, it's probably the deepest, the most intense of them all. Everyone of a certain age remembers where they were when they found out that President Kennedy had been shot.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SILHOUETTE SHADOWS")
HORNSBY: (Singing) In the third grade, waiting for the intercom to tell us when the buses arrive on a Friday afternoon, November 22. Interrupted by a TV voice telling us the president's been shot. Then kids erupted in glee.
SIMON: Has the thought ever occurred to you that you could have a very busy, contented and fulfilling life just playing your biggest hits out to groups?
HORNSBY: Oh, what a prison (laughter). Of course, that's true, but I'm just not interested in moving in that world. I'm interested in the now. I'm looking for tomorrow musicians rather than yesterday musicians, and I'm looking for tomorrow music more so than nostalgic music. So, no, I really don't want to do that. I'm really not interested. If I had to do that, I'd probably just stop.
SIMON: Bruce Hornsby - his new album out now, "Indigo Park." Thank you so much for being with us.
HORNSBY: My pleasure, man. Thanks for being knowledgeable. It's very nice of you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MEMORY PALACE")
HORNSBY: (Singing) I'm building my memory palace. Item placement and long-thought chains. Prime numbers I'm running in sequence. Behind the eyes, mnemonic aids. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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