By Alan Jackson
Natalie Merchant, 35, former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs, last year released her second solo album, Ophelia. A new single, Break Your Heart, is released this month. She lives in New York.
Alan Jackson: I saw you play Glasgow last autumn. It was Santa Barbara yesterday, Los Angeles tonight. Is this The Tour That Never Ends?
NAM: Well, I generally give a year to an album, so no. I'm actually hoping to be back home by May so that I can plant my vegetable garden. Come round after that and you'll find me lugging 40lb bags of topsoil and manure around my back yard. I grow runner beans, snap peas, tomatoes, zucchini. Well, anyone can grow zucchini.
AJ: I understand you've got a Joni Mitchell impersonator as support act. What does the real Joni think about that?
NM: She's seen him twice and think's he's very funny. In fact, she's coming to see the show again tonight. His name is John Kelly. He was operatically trained in Florence and has this amazing colorature voice. Some people think it's Joni for the first two numbers. The make-up may be unexpectadly heavy, but the wig is particularly convincing.
AJ: You've been out on the road since you were 17. The novelty of fluffy bathrobes and disposable shower caps must have long since worn off. How do you customize your hotel rooms?
NM: I take down any advertising material, move the furniture around so that I can do yoga on the floor, and try to open the window. Right now I'm on the 23rd floor overlooking the freeway, so that's not possible. I've been in LA for two earthquakes. I just hope there's not another one while I'm up this high.
AJ: Hollywood has courted you over the years. So far you've resisted. But I can't imagine you ever acting the diva, complaining that someone else had a bigger Winnebago than you.
NM: I confess that, last night, people were trying to stop me cleaning up the garbage in the dressing room before we left the theatre. I've got no time for the Mr Fancy Pants routine - those people who think they should never stand in line, and always get the biggest portion. That sense of entitlement is destroying the world.
AJ: Recently you gladly collaborated with The Chieftains on their new album, Tears Of Stone. But what if your record company held you at knifepoint and made you choose between a rap duet with Ol' Dirty Bastard and a power ballad with Michael Bolton and Mariah Carey?
NM: I'd opt for the cyanide tablet. I really would. Luckily, I've got a very thick contract to protect me from horrors from that.
AJ: I know you worried about life changing after you left 10,000 Maniacs. Now that the dust has settled, are you comfortable?
NM: I haven't lost my privacy or my ability to move about freely. I live in a normal neighborhood and can still be a participant in ordinary life. Considering that I've got friends who can't even make a rest stop while travelling without there being a commotion, it's all worked out very well, thanks