Robbie Robertson

Your new album, How to Become Clairvoyant, has a few stories about being on the road. How much was travel an inspiration?
A lot of this record is reflective, and some of it takes place during a period when I was making discoveries of places and people and different kinds of music – life experiences. The album is very much a journey – in the writing process and literally, too, through the music.

In one of the songs, you reference the Chelsea Hotel. Is that the most memorable place you’ve stayed?
I used to live there when I first started playing with Bob Dylan around 1966. In that song [“When the Night Was Young”], I’m referring to Edie Sedgwick. She lived down the hall from me and was always hanging out in my room. I would get a call from the lobby saying, “Mr. Warhol is down here looking for Edie. She’s not in your room, is she?” And I’d have to make up some fib. I’ve gone back to look at it but not to stay.

Did growing up on the Six Nations reserve influence your playing?
That’s where I got the idea. There wasn’t a local place to go and see entertainment; they had to make their own. Someone would get out a mandolin or a guitar or a drum, and somebody would sing or dance. Everyone played an instrument. My uncles and cousins started teaching me guitar chords when I was very young, and I was really drawn to it. They would say, “You’ve got real talent” and kind of convinced me that maybe I did.

Which concerts stand out in your mind?
In the early 1970s, the Band played at a place called Watkins Glen, a racetrack in upstate New York. It was us, the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead. They were expecting 100,000 people to come for one day, and 650,000 showed up. At the time, it was the biggest concert in the world. It was crazy. You just didn’t know what was going to happen.

So how do you become clairvoyant?
I’m working on it everyday. I’ll let you know.