Slowing down not an option for Lucinda Williams following 2020 stroke

For many, a stroke can force a dramatic change to lifestyles and careers.

For Lucinda Williams, it was never going to keep her from making music.

“I was so bound and determined to get back to normal,” said Williams, speaking with KAXE from her Nashville home, “that it just never occurred to me.”

As soon as the acclaimed singer-songwriter was able to, she returned to the stage. Now, the 70-year-old often listed as one of America’s greatest songwriters is back with a new album, Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart. With guitar playing still giving her trouble, Williams turned to collaboration to complete the songs.

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Lucinda Williams

It turned out her husband and manager, Tom Overby, had some hidden songwriting talents.

“Come to find out he was pretty darn good,” Williams said with a laugh. “I wasn’t aware that he had studied creative writing and was interested in it.”

Alongside the collaborative new album, Williams ventured into a different writing field earlier this year, releasing her first book. The memoir, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You, gave fans a detailed look at her childhood and career up to 2009. It also explained many of the stories and people behind her songs.

“I was always fond of telling the stories behind the songs when I performed,” Williams said. “And I found out that people really liked that and a lot of them wanted to know more.”

Without the time constraints of a ticketed concert, she was able to explain the songs in greater detail through the book.

Later, the conversation turned to her earliest brushes with fame and the rocky relationship she had with record companies. In 1994, Williams won a Grammy for Mary Chapin Carpenter’s version of her song “Passionate Kisses.” According to Williams, Carpenter’s label thought the song would make a bad single because it “wasn’t country enough.”

After Carpenter stood her ground and made the song her single, it won the Grammy for best country song.

“Shows you what they know,” she quipped.

You can listen to the complete conversation above and read a full review of Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart here.