SK: And I think that the only gimmick I really have now is to be one of the few guys, and there are some others, but to be one of the very few guys who actually is getting better as he gets older, as you would expect someone to do at any given profession. I think I probably said this in another interview but if I was a doctor or an architect, I would expect at fifty I would be right at the peak of my powers. And I don't see any reason as a musician, or a songwriter, or a lyricist, or a singer that that shouldn't apply in the same way. The only strange thing is that people are kind of noticing it, and kind of talking about it, and that just shows how weak the other people were who got worse as they got older, and what suckers they were, and that they weren't real to start with. It was all just an act. And only the real guys -- the Dylans, and the Cohens, and the Neil Youngs, and hopefully I can move into this as I get older...it would be the genuine article. The people who are doing it for the love of what they do, and because they felt they had something to give, not because they were like -- I don't know, the Psychedelic Furs, or fucking Howard Jones, and Culture Club, sort of trotting around endlessly doing a show of their moment in the sun.
HS: Right.
SK: That was never my idea. It was probably never their idea, but after a while, I don't know, a funny thing seems to happen in rock n' roll with people -- they run out of ideas. [Heather laughs] They do! And I read your [review] today, and you said I sang it better now than I would have ten years ago, and that's absolutely true. But there's not a lot of people you can say that for. If you took Rod Stewart and you go no, no, no, the further you go back [both laugh] the better and better he was singing. But why is that? Why does that happen? Why do they lose their...verve? I don't know.
HS: There's a memory I have from the tour for After Everything Now This, watching sound check in Philadelphia. One of your girls was very upset, because her dad had to go up on stage and do sound check, and I remember you singing to her from the stage. It was this cute little song for her, and then you promptly went into "I Wanna Be Your Dog." [Steve laughs] And I remember thinking it was the perfect example of balancing that contrast -- because I think that is where a lot of people do get in trouble with rock music, as far as performers go; being the Rolling Stones and trotting around acting like you're still twenty-five when you're --
SK: Sixty!
HS: -- you're past that, yeah.
SK: There's nothing wrong with being sixty, as long as -- like, the other night I was watching that movie Troy, which is a terrible movie, but there's a few of the old kings in it, [and] I'm starting to check out old guys and thinking 'How do you get old?' And there were some old guys in that, sixty-odd type dudes, and they were totally cool, you know, they had white thinning hair and white thinning beards, but they had the bearing and experience that is just as important, and is a counterpoint to the glowing beauty of youth. And it's unnatural when you're sixty not to be sixty, but sixty doesn't have to be entertainment, and it doesn't have to be some washed-out, bloated old parody. I can't see why -- and as I say, Dylan or Neil Young, you don't see those guys -- they still fucking got their bite, if they want to have it, and they've still got their edge, and I don't see why you couldn't have it at ninety. I don't see why it has to be a thing that can only be connected with youth. I mean, actors can be good when they're old.
HS: Right.
SK: I don't know, I guess I'm... [Laughs] Why am I going on and on about this?
HS: Well, obviously, you have a milestone coming up this year, and it's on your mind because you've been talking about it for twenty minutes, referencing it -- how do you feel about turning fifty this year?
SK: You know, I'm kind of welcoming it because I like I said, now I've got a real gimmick. [Heather laughs] No, it's a real gimmick -- I'm fifty, but I rock! I fucking rock, baby! Give me a guitar and a band, and I'll go on stage and I'll rock. And I still can. But it's not stupid. I've figured out a way to do it. It doesn't have to be, "Oh, little mama!--" [Heather laughs] " -- with your tight jeans on!" That's silly, when you see a guy at fifty doing that. But when you see a guy at fifty come on like you see Dylan or Neil -- I mean, they're way past that now. Nick Cave, he's a little bit younger than me -- he's pushing fifty, though -- and when he sings his songs it isn't ridiculous because they can come from a twenty-year old man, or they can come from a fifty-year old man, do you know what I mean? And Leonard Cohen, and...There's a few, I guess. I think John Lennon maybe could have been one as well, you know, sort of resisting the bullshit of it all. Kind of staying where you always were: independent, and not believing the imbeciles around you, telling you to do this and do that.