What can I do about Don McLean? He is very talented. “American Pie” and “Vincent” are just a fraction of his career.
But listen, he’s a bad guy. So as he readies a new album, a single, a tour the bad PR is coming whether he likes it or not. This afternoon, Page Six “revealed” his 24 year old girlfriend, “Paris Dylan” (come on, that cannot be her name). Her Instagram account is filled with stuff about newly divorced 72 year old McLean. She’s younger than his children. He doesn’t care. Paris likes celebrities, especially older ones. Two weeks she was hanging out with Quentin Tarantino.
I wrote about Don’s daughter Jackie a couple of years ago when she published an online memoir piece about growing up with Don. It wasn’t a pretty story.
Plus Don’s wife of 27 years, Patrisha, divorced him (and scored $10 mil for time served) accusing him of domestic violence.
It’s stunning that Don McLean could write such nice songs and be so awful. Even his new song, “Botanical Gardens,” is good. Of course, the lyrics about hitting on girls.
I always say, if we’d known Picasso, we wouldn’t have liked him. This is where you have to decide– does the artist’s life influence how you feel about him? Is that a consideration? Or are artists exempt from judgment and normal behavior?
No matter how wonderful McLean’s new album is, his recent history will haunt him. The Page Six item was obviously planted to thwart a public ceremony next Wednesday in New Rochelle designed to honor him. All of next week he’s doing publicity– will those who interview him not ask about all this? (I would, so I probably won’t get an interview.)
But what the heck? Enjoy the new song.
It’s easy to forget that Kirstie Alley was on “Cheers” and no one knew how crazy or mean she was. Today she Tweeted award winning genius scientist Stephen Hawking this disrespectful message: “You had a good go at it. Thanks for your input.” Her account is still up and she has not deleted the arrogant, ignorant Tweet despite criticism from the Twitter world. Alley obviously prefers the fiction of L. Ron Hubbard to the actual science of Hawking. An avowed member of Scientology, she subscribes to Xenu, John Travolta (who is a complete fiction) and the brainwashing of unsuspecting Hollywood wannabes. We learn something new and bad every day.
Elton John is getting two albums’ worth of cover tributes on April 6th– one called “Revamp” and the other “Restoration.” The latter is all country stars interpreting Elton and Bernie Taupin hits– and my guess is that one will really take off fast. Strangely, no one covers one of my favorites of their songs, “Country Comfort.” And there’s no appearance by Leon Russell, with whom Elton and Bernie made a whole (and excellent) album. But there are plenty of big names, like Little Big Town and Lee Ann Womack, to compensate.
the songs were taken from the April 10th Elton Grammys TV special. Famed producer Peter Asher assembled the tracks. Ed Sheeran’s “Candle in the Wind” was one of his discoveries, I’m told, and not the version that’s been floating around YouTube. All of this is part of Sir Elton’s three year “retirement” plan, and it’s damn good marketing. By the way, yes, there was an Elton tribute album years ago — called “Two Rooms” (1991)– that holds up very nicely.