An interview with Sam Smith, conducted by Peter Smith
Q) Sam, I know it was a long time ago, but do you remember the first time you heard a Beatles song? Or when the group first came to your attention?
A) [Long pause] I think it was Abbey Road. And then I remember hearing "A Hard Day's Night" at the end of a long car trip. I remember being very tired. I was in the back seat. I liked it right when I heard it — immediately, I mean. I remember wanting to hear more songs. Dad, I didn't even know what songs really were back then. I hadn't had any experiences in what people — you and Mom — called "songs."
Q) Do you remember what you thought of when you heard the word "Beatles"?
A) I thought of four dung beetles with their guitars.
Q) Do you think listening to music like that made you feel more grown-up? After all, before that you'd been on a pretty steady diet of Burl Ives and Raffi.
A) Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Q) So when you look back at that time, why do you think the Beatles turned into this obsessive interest of yours?
A) There was just so much information! I sort of wanted to be a part of the whole Beatles thing. There were all those great Paul-Is-Dead clues. And all those Beatles' songs that seemed made for kids — "Octopus's Garden," "Yellow Submarine," "With a Little Help from My Friends." It seemed the Beatles were like a good disease, a good plague. They spread. The funny thing is, I didn't really get into any of the other '60s groups until much later. The Who, groups like that.
Q) So why the Beatles?
A) That's a hard one. [long pause] I think mainly . . . it's because I could actually hear what they were singing. If I could ever make out what the Rolling Stones were saying, it would be something like, Have some heroin, or, I want to slap you, or something. And everything fit in. The words and the melodies and the members of the group. Everything fit together for me.
Q) So think back on three of your favorite Beatles songs. Can you remember what it was you liked about them?
A) Sure. Go ahead.
Q) "In My Life."
A) It was mainly the melody. There are some Beatles melodies that I really, really fell for. Now I've just started to like George Gershwin. Back then, if you'd played Gershwin, I would've left the room, but "In My Life" had a beautiful melody.
Q) "Helter-Skelter."
A) The coolest song. Paul just screaming out like that. The words "creepy" and "cool" keep coming to me.
Q) "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey."
A) Hmmm. Some parts of it, the instrumentals. That's one of those songs where I really listened to the drums.
Q) So was George always your favorite Beatle, or did you switch around?
A) I'd say George, always. I always liked the second guy. I've never been into the lead, or the hero. For me, John and Paul combined as one. George was the second guy, and Ringo was on the drums. I have this thing about the second guy . . .
Q) Which is why Ed Harris is your favorite actor — because he's always playing the second banana . . .
A) Right. I liked Ed Harris in The Rock — well, you're right, I like Ed Harris in everything, even Pollack. I liked the best friend in The Perfect Storm. I liked Trinity in The Matrix, more than Neo. And it was George I liked, not his songs necessarily. You know Alex [his best friend, currently ranked the seventh-fastest runner in the United States]? Paul and John are like Alex. They'll always win. But the person who comes in second is the one I really, really like. Not that Alex isn't my best friend, because he is. Does that make sense? [pause] After George, I started to like Ringo a lot, then I think I switched back to George.
I remember that time you couldn't come to Europe with us — you were working — but Mom took us all to Colonsay, in the Hebrides. We were in a hotel on this tiny island, and the woman who owned the hotel told us that Jackie Stewart . . .
Q) — the racecar driver —
A) — Right, Jackie Stewart's yacht had docked on the island. And, I don't know, I think Princess Anne was on it, and Sean Connery, and some other mystery people. We were going to go down to the docks and check it out, but then we were like, Nahhh. But I remember the only doctor on Colonsay was called onto the boat for a medical emergency. When he came back onshore, everybody on the island was asking him, So who did you treat? And the doctor said he couldn't say, he'd signed a hush-hush agreement, but he said, "All I can say is the person who's sick is more famous than the queen." Mom and I put it together afterward. It must have been George.
Q) So when you were thinking about writing a letter to a Beatle, why didn't you write George a letter?
A) Because I thought to myself, Who would be the best guy to get a letter back from? And it was Paul. I still loved Paul. He was just already so popular. And George didn't seem like the kind of person who would write a kid back. He hated being a Beatle. And I couldn't write to John, for obvious reasons.
Q) Were your friends into the Beatles, too?
A) I remember wanting to recommend the Beatles to all my friends, but a lot of them were already into them. Whether it was through their parents or whatever.
Q) Do you have a favorite album, or are you a song person?
A) I like all of Abbey Road. That's still my favorite. For me, that's like having an entire album of "In My Life"'s. Not melody-wise, since the songs go from quiet to catchy to exciting, then back to quiet again, but favorite-wise.
Q) So what are you listening to nowadays?
A) I don't know. I'm not really up-to-date with music. I like two songs of Eminem. One song of Limp Bizkit. I really hate John Mayer. I like the White Stripes — "Black Math." I play Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" over and over again, trying to figure out how to play it. I like the Who, late Who, not early Who. I like almost anything from the 1600s up, any piano period from baroque to modern. Someone from the classical period, like Clementi, not so much. A kid could make up what he wrote, it's so plain. Today, I was listening to someone play Gershwin's Preludes. They seemed impossibly fabulous. They were just great. I love '40s music. It's so relaxing, no matter what it is, it's all good. I know I'm going to like it. I don't mind heavy metal. A little Ozzy Osbourne. Just not the TV show.
Q) Did the Beatles teach you anything?
A) Little things. How to act on stage. How to bow. Back when I first heard they broke up, I remember thinking, If you have a group, how could you ever break up? Now I know. I think the fact that I play the piano myself kept me going with the Beatles, because I always wanted to learn their songs.
Q) So what's it like having a book written about you?
A) I haven't really thought about it that much. Whenever I do, I can't really imagine it. I got a little nervous and embarrassed when you were writing it, especially when you were finishing up, but not anymore. It's not really anything to get nervous about. And I told you, I think it's a really good book.
Q) Thanks. It'll be fun for you to read when you're fifty or sixty years old.
A) Right. And you're —
Q) Gonzo. Let's not go into it. So how do you feel about the Beatles now? Five years after you first heard them?
A) I think I'll just always like them. They're still my favorite band. I think they'll always be the greatest band — in my mind, that is.
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