Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy has two big new 2020 projects: his solo album Love Is The King and his book How To Write One Song. Last night, he swung by The Late Show to discuss both, and he even played a song (a snippet of one, at least) he wrote inspired by Stephen Colbert.
Towards the end of the conversation, the two discussed Tweedy’s new book How To Write One Song, and Tweedy said Colbert’s October 22 monologue following the final 2020 presidential debate inspired him to write a song. Introducing his in-interview performance, Tweedy said he penned the quick, incomplete ditty to “illustrate one of the exercises in the book.” Strumming an acoustic guitar, Tweedy sang, “I’m your host, taste the blood / Tonight’s tooth was the last / It’s for the best, hope is free / But to me, it seems to be / Not as free when you’re hurting for cash / Hurting for cash, when you’re hurting for cash.”
Colbert responded by saying he “smells a hit,” which prompted Tweedy to quip, “It smells, alright.”
He also discussed the motivation behind his new album, saying, “My normal way of coping is to write music and try to do something creative. When the weight of this was all hitting me at the beginning of the pandemic, I really wanted to write country songs because it’s like comfort food to me. Folk music, country music is I guess at the core of how I think about music, and it just felt very, very comforting to me.”
Watch the full interview above. He also performed “Guess Again” on the show, so check that out below.
