» Patti Smith interview
Patti Smith talks to Stephen Dalton exclusively about radiating youth and the film of her life showing during the Cinecity festival
Patti Smith
You can feel Patti Smith’s crackling energy before she even sits down to talk. All sharp angles and wiry energy, there is still something vaguely feral about this one-time Bohemian queen of New York’s downtown punk scene. Even at 61, beneath a ragged haystack of greying hair, Smith is bursting with ideas about art, poetry, politics and music. She seems less like a rock star than an untamed force of nature.
“I don’t have an image of myself when I’m walking down the street as a rock star,” Smith says. “I’m a human being and a friend and a mom and a writer and an artist. I play electric guitar and all that, but I’m just a person. I don’t believe people playing rock’n’roll should have crowns. We’re not kings and queens. Rock’n’roll belongs to the people.”
These are prolific times for Smith. She has recorded five studio albums and numerous collaborative projects since turning 50. Three years ago, she curated London’s prestigious Meltdown arts festival. Earlier this year, she released her Coral Sea collaboration with guitarist Kevin Shields, and hosted a major exhibition of her art at the Cartier Foundation in Paris.
Meanwhile, in between writing songs for her next album, Smith is currently promoting Steven Sebring’s remarkable monochrome documentary about her life and work, Dream of Life. The film is an impressionistic journey from the singer’s working-class roots in rural New Jersey, where she devoured William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud, to her global renown as a rock icon, poet and political activist.
Preliminary filming began in 1995, when Smith was reeling from the untimely death of her husband Fred ‘Sonic‘ Smith and her brother Todd in quick succession. Michael Stipe of REM, a longtime friend, introduced her to Sebring and the chemistry was instant. “It was like God gave me a new brother,” Smith recalls.
Dream of Life follows a newly widowed Smith as she starts making music and playing live again, encouraged by famous friends including Bob Dylan. “I remember the first couple of times I got on stage I felt almost as if I was going to have a heart attack,” Smith recalls. “It was a little difficult at first, but not that difficult because I’m just a natural performer. I had the encouragement of my band, and people like Bob Dylan and Michael Stipe. A lot of people gave me courage and comfort. But reconciling myself to life without my loved ones was my difficulty. A very personal difficulty.”
Just a month away from turning 62, Smith likes to paint herself today as a mousy bookworm and domesticated maternal wallflower. But she is still a spiky livewire in conversation and onstage, seemingly unbothered by age.
“People in our present culture are so worried about their face or wrinkles,” Smith shrugs. “But really, you can radiate youth and joy from within. I always think of that William Blake painting, Glad Day. It shows a human being radiating joy.”
Even after years of sadness and loss, Smith herself continues to radiate joy and an intoxicating lust for life. Also, as the raw live footage in Dream of Life amply demonstrates, her rock shows still pack more punch than performers half her age.
“When I get onstage and plug in my electric guitar, I am such an animal,” Smith cackles. “It just brings out something so primitive. It still amazes me.”
Patti Smith: Dream of Life (15 certificate) screens at The Duke Of York’s Picturehouse on Friday 21 November at 11pm as part of Cinecity, the Brighton Film Festival. www.cine-city.co.uk or 0871 704 2056
