The Grammy- and Oscar-winning music producer has worked in the studio with many of the greats. But after releasing “The Other Side,” his first album of new music in 18 years, T Bone Burnett has found himself in a rare setting: on tour.
T Bone Burnett is best known as a music producer, but in April, he released “The Other Side”, his first album of new music in 18 years. Asked why he releases his own music so infrequently, Burnett replied, “I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes person. I like creating in private.”
Maybe even more remarkable, this fall, he’s touring behind it.
He was quoted earlier this year saying he always viewed the audience as a mob coming to get him. “Yeah, like a lynch mob or something”, he laughed. “It was just raw paranoia, but also just insecurity.”
Burnett is more at home in the studio, where he’s produced albums for The Wallflowers, Greg Allman, and Elton John.
Asked what he thinks he can get out of musicians that maybe other people don’t, Burnett said, “Well, what I try to get out of them is just their full love, their full being.”
He described “accidentally” ending up in the commercial mainstream in a big way a couple of times. “I mean, it’s always a fluke, but, yes, I have.”
“Has that surprised you?” Mason asked.
“Yeah. Well, in a way, there have been times when you see around a corner, like with ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?'”
Burnett produced and curated the music for the 2000 Coen Brothers film:
“When the Coens came and said they wanted to do a movie about the history of American music, I thought, oh, this all fits together”, said Burnett.
