Listen to Ryan Adams Talk About His Huge Catalog, Skateboarding

In the last year Ryan Adams has gone through a full-on transformation. He's shunned his legendary appetite for drugs and alcohol, found himself a steady girlfriend, debuted a playful rap and hardcore metal side-career on his Web site, and made one of the most consistent records of his career. Rolling Stone Associate Editor Austin Scaggs sat down with the newly squeaky-clean Adams for the current issue of Rolling Stone, and we've collected a couple choice audio clips from their marathon conversation where Adams discusses everything from the real-life truth behind his lyrics to skateboarding.

Read the full interview here

Adams talks about the inspiration for and evolution of his last few records

Adams describes the day he learned skateboarding is just like dealing with girls

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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