Elvis Costello

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

Jesse Thorn (0:29)

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. I want to play one of my favorite past interviews for you. It's with Elvis Costello. You know Elvis Costello, right?

I talked to him in 2015 He had just written a memoir called Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink. You're gonna hear me talking about it more in just a second. In 2026, Costello is celebrating the 49th anniversary of his debut album, My Aim Is True. There's a box set with over 50 never-before-heard recordings on it. And I mean, you're about to hear this in just a second, but Elvis Costello is a genuine delight. Let's kick things off with the first track from My Aim Is True, Welcome to the Working Week.

David Lee Rothman said that music critics like Elvis Costello because he looks like them.

Elvis Costello (2:15)

Oh, not that again.

Jesse Thorn (2:17)

But it might be more that he, it's a good quote. I mean, that is a solid piece of business. I don't know if it's true, but it's fun to say.

Elvis Costello (2:28)

You tell me, I'm not a writer. I'm a lover, not a fighter.

Jesse Thorn (2:32)

David Lee Rothman said that music critics like Elvis Costello because he looks like them, but is the next part of this, yes, it might be more because he thinks like them or makes music the way they might like to.

Elvis Costello (2:47)

Have you seen David recently?

Jesse Thorn (2:48)

No.

Elvis Costello (2:50)

He looks just like a wisdom writer to me.

I'm only teasing you. I know I've heard that one a few times.

Jesse Thorn (2:58)

Through his career, through his career, he's taken his favorite, I'm gonna power through this.

Elvis Costello (3:05)

I know you are, I can sense I'm not gonna deflect you.

Jesse Thorn (3:07)

No, not at all. I'm a professional pseudo-journalist.

Elvis Costello (3:11)

Through his career, I'm proud to hear it.

Jesse Thorn (3:13)

He's taken his favorite pop sounds. The ones he grew up with, the ones he learned about as a young man, the ones he's come to know in middle age, and he's pushed them through his own vessel. He writes eloquently about this web of influence.

Elvis Costello (3:25)

Sorry, can I stop you for a second?

Jesse Thorn (3:28)

Yes.

Elvis Costello (3:29)

Are we talking about David on me? Because this reference to pushing things through my vessel, it frankly sounds quite rude to me. I don't know whether we should be saying this on NPR.

Jesse Thorn (3:38)

We may get letters. There are some things that are legal to say on the radio and some things that aren't. I think I'm allowed to speak metaphorically.

But if you make it vulgar, we might have to bleep this whole exchange.

Elvis Costello (3:51)

I'm almost certain they're going to have to do that. I see them hovering over that big red button there in the control room.

Jesse Thorn (3:56)

If you're so keen.

Elvis Costello (3:57)

And that's not a rude reference. I promise you that wasn't intended, a double entendre.

Jesse Thorn (4:04)

Costello writes eloquently about this web of influence. In his new memoir, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink. The way that, by the way, you've ruined the entire tone of this introduction. This was a really like thoughtful introduction that I worked very hard on.

And now it's just a series of jokes about private parts.

Elvis Costello (4:26)

And well, that's what you know by now from reading this book, that that is really my entire aim has been this. I think I know I appreciate what you're saying. I, of course, the David Lee Roth, we've managed to mention David's name more often than mine. It's amazing. He's getting a lot of free publicity. Maybe he's got a book out as well.

I appreciate what you're saying. I'm teasing you.

But you're quite right. This book is trying to link up. I wasn't, as you can tell from reading even a few pages, it doesn't begin, I was born. And then I did this, and then I did that. And the laughter and the tears and my drug hell and then my conversion to some strange philosophy. And, you know, I tried to connect up emotionally the things that came to me. The fact that I happened to be born into a family for whom music was both vocation and occupation. Both my parents, my grandfather before my father as well. A life of travel that leads you on adventures and in some cases misadventures, hence the title Unfaithful Music. Memory being somewhat elusive or very vivid and then elusive. Unfortunately, both my father and grandmother, afflicted by dementia in their later years, made me fearful that I would at some point in the future not be able to gather all of these experiences that I've been lucky to have and put them on a page so they could be read by, just say, take two people, my two eight year old boys. I mean, other people want to read it too, that's great. But in some senses, I was thinking about, there's some time in the future where I'll wish that I wrote this down, because it may not all join up in quite the same way.