The latest issue of Rolling Stone features Greil Marcus’s in-depth Q&A with Todd Haynes, director of I’m Not There — the new film in which six different actors portray Bob Dylan. The interview was originally conducted before an audience at the Telluride Film Festival, the day after I’m Not There premiered. Below, check out audio excerpts from the interview:

• Haynes talks about the concept of identity in his films — including Dylan’s status as identity-changer, and how the Sixties may have marked been the beginning of a national “identity crisis.”
  

• Haynes talks about the idea of “queerness” in his films, touching on both Andy Warhol and Pentecostal fundamentalist Christianity.
  

• Marcus and Haynes answer an audience question about the role of Dylan’s music in the film.

System of a Down’s Serj Tankian appears in the current issue of Rolling Stone to discuss his new solo album Elect the Dead, the first concert he attended in the U.S. (Iron Maiden) and his fondness for Borat and Ali G. The interview could not be contained in just the magazine, however, so we present you with some exclusive audio excerpts from that Q&A.

• 
  Tankian talks about the inspiration behind his new song “Unthinking Majority,” a correlation between war and anti-depressants.

• 
  NSFW: Tankian discusses why the C-word keeps popping up in his art.

• 
  Tankian explains why his song “Lie, Lie, Lie” morphed from overly serious to very humorous.

[Photo: Daragh McDonagh]

As you may have noticed by now, Bruce Springsteen adorns the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone. In his revealing interview, Springsteen discusses the challenge of balancing music and family, as well as his latest album, Magic. But it’s one thing to read the man’s words; it’s another to hear him talk. We’ve been teasing you with promises of exclusive audio from his interview with Rolling Stone’s Joe Levy for the past week, and finally, we’re delivering. But before you click on the clips below, flip through this gallery of vintage Springsteen photographs that track his early days with his first band, the Castiles, his long-haired Seventies phase, and the times he met up with U2 in Europe.

• 
  Springsteen talks about adding some rarely played classics to his setlist, and how Magic echoes his earlier albums.

• 
  Bruce discusses a few of his new favorite bands, which include Rise Against and Against Me!.

• 
  Springsteen talks about what will resonate most about George W. Bush’s legacy: how he was able to pack the Supreme Court with conservative judges.

In the current issue of Rolling Stone, free-spirit folkie Devendra Banhart details his run-ins with Lindsay Lohan and first experiences with breasts (they were on a hermaphrodite). Click below to listen in to select parts of his interview with Christian Hoard, where he chats about his bizarre collection of rock memorabilia and collaborations with a Stroke.

• Used goods from Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Whoopi Goldberg, Sammy Hagar — Banhart is stockpiling them all:
  

• Banhart became pals with actor Gael Garcia Bernal after discovering they had something unusual in common:
  

• On what happened to his recording of the Strokes’ Nick Valensi crooning the line “I’ve bribed the whore of babylon to lend me her waterbed”:

[Photograph by Max Vadukul]

During their interview for the current issue of Rolling Stone Associate Editor Austin Scaggs and Patti Scialfa discussed about everything from her relationship with her husband Bruce Springsteen to writing songs in the shower. Here’s a few clips from their chat:

• Scialfa explains why she regrets saying that she had to be drunk to write “Bad For You,” and big-ups writing songs in the shower: “I did it late at night, two or three in the morning, drank a ton of tequila, sang, and I was really hoarse at the time, too, and I know I sang out of tune, but I kind of liked that and I kept that. … I had to be a little out of control.”

• Scaggs asks Scialfa if she and Springsteen felt love at first sight: “He has tremendous magnetism, and he’s beautiful, and I thought he was really lovely. … I thought he was really cute, but I’m not a dallier, first of all, so it would have had to have been the real deal or nothing at all.”

• Scialfa opens up about Springsteen songs that are difficult for her to listen to: “When Bruce wrote [”Reno”] … it was his last solo record, Devils & Dust, and it was about the man in the hotel room with the hooker and stuff. When he gave himself license to write that, I said, ‘Okay, then I’ll give myself license,’ and I wrote “Bad for You.” So that’s how it is in our house.”
  
  Photo: Getty

Rolling Stone Associate Editor Austin Scaggs sat down with Kanye West for one-half of the magazine’s current cover story to discuss everything from writing raps in the bathroom to Bob Dylan. Here’s a few choice bits of their interview:

• West explains how his music reminds some people of Bob Dylan and discusses his interest in for Johnny Cash’s “Boy Named Sue”: “I need to get more into it [Dylan’s music]. And Johnny Cash, people have said, ‘you need to listen to this guy.’”

• West explains how his song “Drunk & Hot Girls” is universal: “That song relates to everyone, because either the girl’s a drunk and hot girl, or she was a drunk and hot girl at one point. That song is a life-defining song. I’m going to tell you some real shit. ‘Drunk & Hot Girls’ is the realest song I ever wrote, and it represents me the most. Because at the end of the day, everything relates back to trying to do something for a girl.” (more…)

Rolling Stone’s Evan Serpick recently sat down with Common — who scored his first-ever chart-topping debut with Finding Forever earlier this month — to talk about the ups and downs of working with Kanye West, vegetarianism and being labeled a “conscious rapper.” Here are some of the best parts of their conversation:

• Common examines how working with Kanye has changed his creative process, and what it’s like to butt heads with West in the studio: “I think he added a good amount of leadership and really stepped in as a producer, meaning he really would help work on the hooks and different nuances about the song. He had a fire. He was like, ‘Man, we’re gonna make this successful!’ … A lot of times, we’d disagree.”

• Common on being called a “conscious rapper”: “I love it. At first I used to feel like, ‘Man, why they call me that?’ But I thought about conscious artists — you look throughout history, the artists that they call conscious are the Marvin Gayes or the Bob Marleys, Bob Dylan. (more…)

While backstage at this summer’s eclectic Projekt Revolution tour, Rolling Stone contributing editor Christian Hoard spoke with My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, as well as Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington. Here’s a selection of audio clips from his interview with the the guys responsible for the traveling festival, plus check out behind-the-scenes photos of MCR, LP, Mindless Self Indulgence and more bands here.

• Shinoda explains that Projekt Revolution, which brings hip-hop and rock acts together, prides itself on its non-competitive, inclusive vibe: “I think that if anything it’s just a friendly, fun kind of thing. I remember back when we played Ozzfest a long time ago, we were still establishing ourselves as a band. I’d say about two weeks in we really had gotten our rhythm together and we were really playing great shows and we were winning fans over. It was amazing to us, a person we’d see walk in and sit down and say ‘fuck this band’ and by the end of the set you could tell we kind of changed their mind.” (more…)

Watch Ben Harper play an acoustic rendition of “Steal My Kisses” (and explain the song’s origin) and chat about where he and the Innocent Criminals are at as they release their latest album, Lifeline. Plus, Harper discusses his interview with Rolling Stone associate editor Austin Scaggs, and the star-packed night the two shared in Paris.

Plus, listen to audio selections from Scaggs’ interview with Harper, in which the pair cover everything from Harper’s favorite songs to DJ on the tour bus to the day he realized the fame and the glory could all vanish in an instant.

In this clip Harper discusses the post-show high that keeps him and his bandmates up all night listening to Al Green and drinking.

• Harper recalls the show he played in western France that launched his career.

• Harper offers his opinion on botched traveling rock festival Zooma, and how the jaunt’s cancellation tore him apart.

• 
  

As you may have realized by glancing at our Web site, Maroon 5 is on the cover of the current issue of Rolling Stone. Contributing editor Gavin Edwards sat down with the quintet to discuss everything from their explosive inter-band battles to the moment frontman Adam Levine realized Maroon 5 would have a career beyond their first album. Listen in on a bit of their conversation here:

• 
  Adam Levine discusses Kara’s Flowers — the teenage iteration of Maroon 5 — and reminisces about playing shows at L.A. clubs when he and his bandmates were still in high school.

• 
  Levine talks about the song “Not Falling Apart” and explains how his approach to music changed as the band adopted a more R&B influence.

Sri Lankan rapper and singer M.I.A. recently sat down with Rolling Stone associate editor Brian Hiatt to discuss her new album, Kala (check out our video and written reviews). The globe-trotting MC chatted about everything from her childhood crackhead neighbors to her obsession with “organic” sounding music. Here’s a bit of their interview:

• 
  M.I.A. has a gang of thieves to thank for introducing her to hip-hop: “I’d have this radio I’d listen to every night before I went to bed … The next door neighbors, they were like these sort of Irish crackhead kids, and they broke into our house and they stole everything, and they stole my radio. The day they stole my radio is when I started hearing hip-hop through the walls of next door … I was just hearing basslines and shit like that. And then it was Public Enemy, because then I got to know it, and I was listening to anything rap music.”

(more…)

When Interpol first formed, the band’s melancholy, cavernous goth pop aligned them with an emerging breed of New York bands that were attempting to differentiate themselves from the Nu Metal masses. Nearly ten years later, Interpol have just released their third album, Our Love To Admire and are booked to play Madison Square Garden for the first time in September. Rolling Stone Associate Editor Austin Scaggs sat down with frontman Paul Banks to discuss everything from the singer-guitarist’s enduring love for Nirvana to the dangers of taking song lyrics too seriously. Here’s a bit of their interview:

• 
  Though he played guitar in high school, Banks couldn’t translate that skill into instant social cred: “If someone heard I played guitar, they’d be like, ‘Well, play a song,’ and it’s like, I can’t play any song except original stuff, because I never had the attention span. I’d get sidetracked, because when I heard a good interval, I’d be like, ‘Oh, fuck, I’m going to play with that,’ rather than bothering to learn anything all the way through. So I never really learned the wailing skills. I can’t just pick up a guitar and bust out the hits. But that was something I decided to be … I was humble in the schoolyard with a guitar, whereas all these other jackasses are rocking out to hits.”

• 
  On why he was offended by Green Day fans: “After Kurt [Cobain] died, I really resented everybody getting into Green Day. I was like, ‘A fuckin’ legend just passed, and you guys are listening to Green Day …’ I was really passionate about it.”

• 
  On why he makes all Interpol lyrics available online even though they aren’t included in the albums’ liner notes: “When we started going to foreign countries for the first album, people were like, ‘What the fuck are you saying?’ I felt like, ‘Oh shit, that would be a bitch, with the vocals mixed pretty low and I’m saying strange things, how are they ever going to figure out what I’m saying?’ That was when we first started putting them online. I believe people should absolutely be able to read them, I just don’t feel the need to present them in the liner notes.”

When the Crossroads Guitar Festival came to Chicago at the end of July, Rolling Stone Senior Editor David Fricke sat down for a candid one-on-one chat with the event’s founder, Eric Clapton. Over the course of their conversation, the two discussed everything from the guitar as a living instrument to Jack White’s impressive knowledge of blues to the future of the record industry. Listen to a bit of the interview here:

Photo: Katapodis/Getty

The Dave Matthews Band is in the midst of a full-on national tour, which wraps up in L.A. in early October. When Rolling Stone Associate Editor Austin Scaggs sat down with Matthews to chat about his summer plans and Live Earth, they wound up discussing movies and Matthews’ newborn son, too. Read the full Q&A here and check out the audio clips below for choice outtakes. Plus, don’t miss photos from the first night of DMB’s tour and the band’s new video for “When the World Ends” from his Live at Radio City CD/DVD.

Matthews discusses “the boy,” as he affectionately calls his new son, August.

Matthews talks about his favorite films.

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