Ry Cooder, the legendary 61-year-old guitarist and producer, is not terribly optimistic about the music business. “The whole thing is dismantled,” he laments. “Retail is gone. Radio is gone. OK, now the records are gone. But it’s too bad.” Still, he presses on, having recently released I, Flathead, the third act of his series of albums about L.A. culture — another source of mourning for Cooder. “It’s not that I hate the world,” he says. “I just preferred it another way.” Click below for more on Cooder, including what he plans to do next now that his trilogy is complete.

• Ry Cooder Crafts Offbeat Tribute to Fifties Los Angeles

[Photo: Susan Titel]