On 19 March 1998, SPINonline on AOL presented a chat with JWH from South By Southwest.  Here's the transcript.




SPINspy:  So, Wes...is this your first time at SXSW?

WesleySPIN:  no I've been here many times - but the first time for a
couple of years.

SPINspy:  Do you see lots of bands when you're here?

WesleySPIN:  this year not many cos I have to leave to get to Memphis.
but normally I would. Last night I saw PFSloan which was fantastic. Tonight I wanna see
Olivia Tremor and Giant Sand. Tomorrow Pee Shy!

SPINspy:  SCOTSOSUB:
Question:  Hi Wes. Is the RSPJWH still an active organization? kata

WesleySPIN:  very much so! We just are sending out a new newsletter with
    all the details on the new record. we also just mailed out the
    new dates and a nice gifty type postcard. It's hard when I'm
    on the road to keep it all together - but you can always find me at
                             jwh@armory.com!
                            
SPINspy:  Biggy1236:
Question:  how many performances do you do per year

WesleySPIN:  WAY MANY! This tour started January 8th in Holland and
finishes (so far) on May 28th in New York. On average, probably slightly more
than Bob Dylan (and he does plenty).

SPINspy:  What did you think about the day stage down here at SXSW?

WesleySPIN:  kinda stiff and kinda fun all at the same time. I liked the
fact that pee Shy were on before me though...

SPINspy:  PHCUP19:
Question:  When do you plan on coming to the Midwest - Kansas?

WesleySPIN:  Tough one! There are plenty of dates on the webpage right
now but I'm afraid none of them are in Kansas. Where should I play?
Tell me!

SPINspy:  How involved are you in your webpage?

WesleySPIN:  Well not in the coding bit at all - but I guess I write
most of the stuff on there: lyrics etc. A wonderful person called Rose does
the designing etc. for me. If it wasn't for her it wouldn't exist.

SPINspy:  (and what's the address for those who don't know?)

WesleySPIN:  www.wesweb.net

SPINspy:  KRoth6067:
Question:  Hi Wes.  I'm a longtime fan, and have probably seen you a
dozen  times in NYC and the Bay Area.  I'm just wondering what you've been
listening to lately?

WesleySPIN:  Lots of good stuff. Here goes:
    Cornershop new album (best one yet)
    Serge Gainsbourg: Ballad Of melody Nelson
    Meredith Monk: Atlas
    Carla Bley: Social Studies
    Robert Wyatt's new record - fantastic
    I even head a country song I liked yesterday.
   
SPINspy:You're very obsessed with lists it seems....
    Your website is filled with them
WesleySPIN: It's easier than writing prose all the time!!

SPINspy:  Porknose7:
Question:  WHATS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD

WesleySPIN:  Curry
    Soinach
    Spinach I meant
    Spinach Curry
   
SPINspy:  Bobtheveg:  Will you be on further 98

WesleySPIN:  I have no idea. This year is the big 'reunion' right?
Perhaps I will be asked! Perhaps not

SPINspy:  NOVLKaren:
Question:  So who WOULD you like to play you, in the movie of your life?

WesleySPIN:  Carole Lombard
    Seriously, I think Kevin Spacey is great. Would he b good at me
    though?
   
SPINspy:  RSMaui:
Question:  Are you still performing with your RainSong guitar and how do
you like it?

SPINspy:  We're here with John Wesley Harding live from SXSW

WesleySPIN:  I love my RainSong guitar. It never breaks. I have it with
me right now? Who's asking that question anyway??? I bought a great
guitar lead for it.       Very appropriate.

SPINspy:  SPINonline would like to thank total e for getting us down
here...

SPINspy:  TBoock:
Question:  I've seen you live many times and you always put on a great
show.   Do you ever play "The Best Man's Song" live?  It's a great song.

WesleySPIN:  Thanks. Yes I play that relatively often actually. I like
to play it and it's probably my favourite off that album.

SPINspy:  GIZMO823:
Question:  how is it to be famous, is it different then when u weren't

WesleySPIN:  It's great being famous.... I wish I were famous is all.

SPINspy:  KRoth6067:
Question:  Wes, Was your cold war (occasionally hot on his side of it)
with Elvis Costello ever resolved?

WesleySPIN:  Never even approached really! I used his band a bit when he
wasn't and then he started using them again. Aside from that he
said catty things about me in the press which seemed to be quite
good publicity to me!
WesleySPIN:  I'm sure he's a big FAN of my new record!

SPINspy:  RonAtTheZ:
Question:  Hi Wes. Is the song Window Seat some kind of autobiography?

WesleySPIN:  yes but not mine. It's the story of SOMEONE and it's told
in the first person - like Miss Fortune. But not the story of me -
though all the songs are the story of me somehow. Good questions all these
by the way!

SPINspy:  Fit Guy28:
Question:  John, you have the distinction of being the only artist to
open for Bruce Springsteen in the last 20 years.  Any interesting anecdotes?

WesleySPIN:  Yeah he came round to my house with his mum and  cooked
them a curry. It's true!

SPINspy:  Hogg333:
Question:  How long have you been in the music bizz

WesleySPIN:  I've been playing music since 1988. AWAKE is my 6th for
real record.

SPINspy:  Stop by the SXSW site on SPINonline (keyword: SPIN)
    There's a list of the cool chats we're doing in the next couple of
days

SPINspy:  So, who did you work with on this new album?

WesleySPIN:  chris Von Sneidern who co-produced me last record as well.
Chuck prophet - genius guitar player. Scott McOi - young fresh,
fellow, minus 5er and REM extra man Kurt Bloch (Fastbacks) - oh many many people made noise.

SPINspy:  MundaGirl:
Question:  Wes: What are you reading?

WesleySPIN:  Lots of books right now. The history of Forensic Detection
by Colin Wilson.
    Ryder by Djuna Barnes - great book. Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino.
   
SPINspy:  Ask him questions by pressing the interact button
    Stationer:
Question:  Wes - How do you feel about Dylan's latest album

WesleySPIN:  I love that record. I think it might have been overpraised
for the wrong reasons - but that shouldn't diminish quite how great it is - and I don't
think you could really overpraise it for the RIGHT reasons!

SPINspy:  PHCUP19:
Question:  do you really answer you email?  I mean do you have time to
reply to all the mail you receive or do you have help with it?

WesleySPIN:  No I answer it all myself. Why not? Is that surprising?!

SPINspy:  PayPaul:
Question:  Hi, Wes, do you have any new videos?

WesleySPIN:  No. Videos I'm afraid are a thing of the past for me unless
I meet some aspiring young film maker who's a BIG FAN OF MY WORK!
aspiring I meant - Freudian slip

SPINspy:  JoSpankey:
Question:  I think I've seen you perform live about a hundred times (all
great by the way)... but do you like it better with the full band like on
"The Name Above the Title" tour... or solo?  I love the big band sound.

WesleySPIN:  Full band on the next tour by the way (though not the whole
show)
    ... um.... I like them both. What more can I say? I love playing
    just with Robert Lloyd though - that's always good. A whole band
    can get in the way of your interaction with the audience. My ideal
thin would  be a mix of both in the set -just like the next tour.

SPINspy:  SunCC:
Question:  I want to be a singer how did you get your career?

WesleySPIN:  Just started and went on. It was easier cos I wrote my own
songs and someone liked them and he had the power to give me a record deal
relatively early. If I was a band I'd have broken up by now.

SPINspy:  Cuttlebot:
Question:  Do you type with an English accent?

WesleySPIN:  Yeah!
    Yeah man
   
SPINspy:  JEDIRKD:
Question:  I know that you produced one of the Goober and the Peas
albums, what were those guys like?

WesleySPIN:  great fun but very difficult in the studio - always taking
drugs etc.
no not really.

SPINspy:  Comedy23:
Question:  I love my copy of Collected Stories 1990-1991.  Are there
plans for more books?  Also, do you where you will be in playing in NYC?

WesleySPIN:  Mercury Lounge 17th April and Borders World Trade Centre on
stdin    April 4th (I think). Yes another book is forthcoming.

SPINspy:  JoSpankey:
Question:  Why did you decide to relocate to San Francisco when you
moved to this country?

WesleySPIN:  Love.

SPINspy:  How did moving to the States and SF affect your work?
    How did Love affect your work?
   
WesleySPIN:  I wrote more songs cos I write songs on the road and I'm
always traveling over here.
    Love is good for work. Too much laundry can be bad.
   
SPINspy:  KRoth6067:
Question:  How's your collarbone doing?  When I saw you at the Mercury
Lounge a few months ago, you had to perform from a chair.
    (By the way, thanks for the answer to the EC question.)  :)

WesleySPIN:  It's fine now. I broke it pretty badly. I knew I wasn't not
going to ever play again but it looked like I might be out for a little
while. As it was, a sling and a chair meant I didn't even miss one gig.

SPINspy:  SteveS9:
Question:  I remember hearing that "Ordinary Weekend" was based on a
movie. Or maybe a Jim Thompson novel. Or am I just confused, as usual?

WesleySPIN:  Confused I think though it does have that feel. Devil In ME
has a title taken from a Thompson novel. Ordinary Weekend was all outta my
head I think and then my friend David added the chorus and the
title. Ask him!

SPINspy:  MundaGirl:
Question:  Will there be anymore Fan Club goodies in the near future, a
la dynablob  I and II?

WesleySPIN:  Yes I'm planning a little lyric booklet for the new record
for rspcjwh type people.
    I want to do Dyna#3 all covers. we'll see bou that one!
    'bou' = about
   
SPINspy:  Rbsweet:
Question:  How do you write songs? Do the words come first, then the
music?

WesleySPIN:  Words first definitely. I write them in cars and trains and
    planes and then I go back and get out the guitar (sometimes months
afterwards!)

SPINspy:  DarkFirez:
Question:  what was your favorite song?
WesleySPIN:  Of mine? Of whom? Was When I was a kid or Is Now?
    If now then I like The National Anthem of great Britain.
    Today it's You Baby by The Turtles cos I saw PFSloan do it last
night and I nearly cried.

SPINspy:  Cuttlebot:
Question:  Wes- what's the story on your name, its a Dylan song, right?
WesleySPIN:  It's a Dylan album. The real guy was called John Wesley
Hardin and Dylan or someone at the printing plant spelt it wrong!

SPINspy:  JEDIRKD:
Question:  What is it like to produce your own album?
WesleySPIN:  I like it. But next time I might have someone produce me.
    Actually I co-produced this one and the last one with CvSneidern -
who  incidentally has a great new record out called Wood And Wire.

SPINspy:  Awake has a quasi theme to it...about dreams...how did that
come about?

WesleySPIN:  Difficult. It starts and ends with an alarm clock - as
though the clock is on snooze and all the songs takes place in that two minute gap. But
this is a mode of presentation rather than a strict concept : e.g. it came
after the songs were written

SPINspy:  Get those questions in quickly

WesleySPIN:  or t least most of them. That question was TOO HARD!

SPINspy:  How much do your dreams affect your work?

WesleySPIN:  Quite a lot. I get tunes from dreams on occasion....

SPINspy:  PayPaul:
Question:  My favorite song of yours is "Spaced Cowgirl". Someone you
knew?

WesleySPIN:  No. All my songs are from my imagination (or most of them).
    I'm a big believer that things made up are wonderful. which is
    not very popular nowadays I think. My personal life might not
    be all that interesting!
   
SPINspy:  GetHappy:
Question:  hi Wes--it's Julie from Bellingham.  I just found you on AOL!
love the new album--that's cool you hooked up with Scott and Kurt...now
we've just got to get you all the way up to Bellingham.  we have
lots of fine used bookstores and cozy coffee shops...

WesleySPIN:  I'll be in Seattle and Redmond WA for Borders instores at
the  start of April - 6/7
something like that? Come and find me there (Julie)

SPINspy:  Last question goes to PHCUP19:
Question:  I really don't know much about you personally other than what
you share through your music, are you married or otherwise involved?

WesleySPIN:  I am not at liberty to reveal these details - but you could
ask my ex-wife.
    Thanks for all the questions. Come say hi at a gig - the dates
    are all up at http://www.wesweb.net
   
SPINspy:  Thanks for stopping by to chat with John Wesley Harding...
   Thanks everyone!
OnlineHost:  Copyright 1998 America Online, Inc.
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