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‘I want to blow minds’: Kurt Vile on beating anxiety, hitting arenas and hungering for hits
The one-time carefree Philly stoner has come out of lockdown a changed man – with huge ambitions for his most candid record yet. He reveals how Covid triggered his ‘homecoming’ renaissance
‘I was super-psyched,” says Kurt Vile, legs bouncing as he perches on the edge of an orange chair. “Just grateful for the gig.” The singer-songwriter is speaking from the basement of his century-old Philadelphia home, taking it easy in the corner of the studio he designed for himself as a hideout for when he’s overwhelmed or nervous. “I hadn’t played in so long,” he explains.
Vile is talking about the time, back in November 2020, when Seth Meyers asked him to perform John Prine’s Speed of the Sound of Loneliness on his talkshow. It would be the first time anyone had performed live on the show in eight months, owing to the pandemic, and Vile relished the challenge. Vile is a Prine devotee, as is Meyers, and it would also serve as a tribute: Prine had died of Covid seven months earlier.
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