When Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo between 1888 and 1889, he described a yellow light in the south of France that symbolized the warmth, hope, and vitality that he had been desperately seeking in his own life. Its impact on his work was profound and the fact that his last words were said to be “The sadness will last forever” only makes things more tragic, because, even after finding the light, it still wasn’t enough.
Van Gogh’s journey resonated with Willie Nile so much so that he named his 21st album “The Great Yellow Light” as a tribute as well as an acknowledgement that all of us are out here trying to find our own yellow light at a time when the world feels darker than ever before. The songs are vibrant and immediate, as Nile does his part to show how rock and roll can be instrumental in fighting the ongoing battle against nihilism.
I spoke with Nile recently about the album, his past, and what fans can expect when he returns to his hometown for a show in December.
MNOD: I love that you put just 10 songs on this record. It’s really concise. It’s an old school record that’s not too overloaded for the CD age.
Nile: I agree with you. I like how tight it is. It was not purposeful; it’s just the way it unfolded. I was going to record another song, but I thought, no, it’s too much. It just, it’s just right. So, I left it like that. Yeah.
MNOD: With the crowd participation aspect of this album, was that something you had done in the past or was that new?
Nile: The crowd, the fan fund stuff? Yeah. I’ve been doing fan funds for a while, David, it goes back to, let me think. Jeepers creepers it’s way back. I mean, it might’ve been House of a Thousand Guitars, which was 2009. The fans have been great. I make these records, we put the word out, we offer things in return. Hey, the other day I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with this really nice woman from Utah and we had a great time. That’s one of the things we offer, want to go to the Museum of Metropolitan Art with me or whatever, have a tour in the village or there’s all kinds of things that are offered and the fans are so great. I think I try to put out a great record every time I do. I won’t record anything I don’t believe in, and I won’t just make records to make records. Don’t do it until I’ve got a collection. I think it’s really special and I think that that’s made a connection with the audience. I think they know that and they’re very generous and they’re very, very helpful, because I’m an independent artist. I don’t have a big record company behind me. The fans are my record company.
MNOD: I love how kick the album off with “Wild, Wild World,” because you’ve always had a knack for presenting serious ideas in an uplifting way. The music is much more upbeat than a lot of the lyrical content. Is that something that comes naturally to you?
Nile: I think so. And it’s on purpose. I mean, I write just what comes to me. It’s a perfect example of an upbeat party song, like a surf kind of rocker, and yet the content gets deeper, but it doesn’t stand on a soapbox and stomp my foot. You can get stuff across in a lighter way and I love that. I love that about rock and roll that you can write anything.
MNOD: Yeah, I know you definitely did a lot of that on “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” as well.
Nile: That’s right, and I think that I definitely opened the record on purpose with ‘Wild, Wild World,’ because it is a wild, wild world. Look at the news, look what’s going on. I mean, there’s always a lot of stuff going on that’s chaotic or bad or what tragic, however you want to call it. And now it’s just because the 24-hour news maybe it seems like there’s more, but it’s a wild world out there and there’s real people living and dying. It’s no joke. It’s the good, the bad and the ugly all at the same time. And I thought that that was a really good way to open the album with ‘Wild, Wild World.’ I thought it was a perfect start, an upbeat, let’s rock, and yet some good content.
MNOD: Yeah, definitely. When I took my son to see you play last year at Fountain Plaza, you played ‘An Irish Goodbye’ at that show before the song had come out. So, I was wondering, did the song change at all from the early version to the version that’s on this record?
Nile: Oh, no, not a word changed. I mean, when I wrote it, it was it. I usually, when I write something, if I’m finished, it’s finished. I don’t go back and, oh, let me change this. I don’t write like that. They come and I go for it and if I feel like I’ve got it, it can be one sitting, it can be a couple of sittings, it varies, but it’s not too long. And when I think I’ve got it, it’s done. And that was finished and I started it live. It’s so much fun to play. And we recorded, I’d say in November, back in November and the band and I were in the studio in Weehawken, New Jersey, and we recorded it in a couple of takes, boom, we had it and got brought some really great friends in on it. The great Paul Brady, I don’t if you know him, but he’s an iconic Irish 77-year-old singer- songwriter. He’s a legend in Ireland, and it was so kind of him to sing on it. Bless his heart. Three guys from Black 47, the great punk Irish punk band, as well. Larry Kirwan sang on it and Chris Byrne played uilleann pipes, no, yeah, uilleann pipes and a bodhran, which is a drum, and Fred Parcells played tin whistle and trombone, and the great David Mansfield played mandolin and the great James Maddock sang as well along with my band. So, I had a real cast of characters on the record.
MNOD: Yeah, I know you also had a couple guys from the Hooters play on this album.
Nile: I forgot about that. On ‘Irish Goodbye,’ Rob Hyman of the Hooters plays on that as well. Rob played on six of the songs and Eric Bazilian played on two and they’re longtime friends of mine. We were on Arista together back in 1980 and 1981. We were friends a long, long time, and they’re great musicians, my goodness. They’re just great musicians and songwriters and really good guys, and they were so much fun. They came up from Philadelphia, the last song on the record, ‘Washington’s Day,’ I wrote the lyrics to that song with them. They had a piece of music all finished. It was Rob, Eric and Rick Chertoff, the producer. And I had just signed with Columbia back in 88, and it might’ve been the end in 87, I can’t remember. It was 88, and I went by the record plant to play a new song for Rick Chertoff, who’s mixing that record. He signed me and I had a new song to play him and I went by the studio and he was just him and the engineer and they were mixing. So, I went by and they were working on this song called ‘Washington’s Day.’ They had a finished track and a title, but no lyrics. And that’s not how I make records, but they did. And I’m in the back of the room listening and the words just started coming and I wrote the lyrics, and I’ve been meaning to record that song for years. And I finally got around to it. Rob and Eric came up from Philadelphia in November and we had a great time in the studio recording. They played on ‘Washington’s Day’ as well as ‘Tryin’ To Make a Livin’ in The USA.’
MNOD: I know another featured artist on here is Steve Earle. I know you’ve worked with him in the past on songs. I’m a big Steve fan and he just lends a certain level of seriousness to everything he works on.
Nile: Absolutely, there’s a gravitas to him. There’s his raw voice, his street sense. He brings a real street, strong kind of Johnny Cash, Backstreet Johnny Cash kind of thing. I love Steve. He lived around the corner from me for 15 years, just a couple doors down, and he’s still in New York, but he moved downtown. But yeah, bless his heart for singing on ‘Wake Up America.’ He definitely adds a gravitas to it.
MNOD: That’s a standout song on here for me. It’s the type of song that encapsulates the times we’re living in perfectly. Was that kind of the vibe you were going for?
Nile: That was totally the vibe I was going for. Thanks for saying that, David. The country is just so divided. There’s no source of news, no one source that everybody trusts. There’s all these different news sources, there’s social media and nobody believes anybody else. And it really makes it difficult. It’s like the Tower of Babel happening in real time, and I wanted to write about it, not picking sides as much as like, ‘Hey, we can do better than this.’ Trying to call on the better angels of our nature to make this a better world. Let’s do it together. And all I can do is write about it and in my own personal life try to reflect that, be compassionate and understanding and whatnot. But that really is the cornerstone of the record, I’d say.
MNOD: Yeah, I think you have an ability to write about political topics without alienating one side or the other, which makes a difference.
Nile: I’m surprised in a way, but not surprised. The feedback we’ve gotten, we’ll get emails from people on the Left and the Right saying, ‘Way to go Willie.’ People on completely different sides of the aisle. And so, I felt good about that, that I’m doing my job. I believe in the human race. I hope and pray that the human race can get its act together and take better care of each other on this planet. There’s so much greed; there’s so much hunger for power and people are dying. It’s tragic. It’s tragic.
MNOD: Another one I wanted to ask about was the title track. I like how it falls in the middle of the record and it’s one I had to go back and listen to more than a few times, because the lyrics really got to me. I know the title for the record comes from the Vincent Van Gogh reference, but was that something that you had been into before or did it come about more recently?
Nile: Oh, yeah, yeah, I read about that. I’m a big fan of Van Gogh’s, and I was aware, somewhere along the way I read one of his letters to his brother where he was so inspired by the light in the south of France. And really that song is the centerpiece of the record, because, for me, the Great Yellow light is about joy and wonder and inspired by Van Gogh’s experience in the south of France and being inspired by the yellow light that just blew him away. And from the artwork of this album on down, it’s about awe and wonder, those moments that hopefully people can experience more often than not while they’re on their journeys in this life. I love that song. That’s the one we spent the most time on.
MNOD: Yeah, I can definitely tell that. The dedication to making sure it came out right shines through.
Nile: Yeah, and it really did. They’ve been playing it on outlaw country. I mean, I’m shocked, but very happy about that. I love that song. That’s the centerpiece of the album, really, those moments of joy and wonder that we all love, that hopefully can find more often than not.
MNOD: I also wanted to ask you about what inspired the album artwork. I know we’ve talked about that in the past as it related to your previous albums, so how did the current cover come about?
Nile: Well, my wife Cristina takes all of the photos for my album covers. In 2013, she was in Italy, and she took her son to a circus. A small little circus in the mountains, and it was just a one tent circus, and she took her camera. And when I saw that photograph immediately, literally as soon as I looked at it, I said, the first thing I said was, ‘Oh my God, that’s an album cover.’ She didn’t think so. I said, ‘Oh no, that’s an album cover.’ Well, that was 2013 and when I wrote ‘The Great Yellow Light’ and I knew that was going to be the album title, I thought it was a great foundation to build an album on. I knew right away what the album cover would be, and it’s that great photograph of that fire eater blowing flames out of his mouth, just incredible, surrounded by a couple of clowns and a couple of kids and a moment of awe and wonder.
MNOD: I can definitely envision someone being drawn in by the image even if they didn’t know anything about the music.
Nile: It’s a beauty. Yeah, it’s a beauty. Thank you. Thank you.
MNOD: So, is there any song on this album that stands out as one that people should listen a little closer to?
Nile: Well, I like them all, David. There’s 10 of them, and I mean it, it’s a fun journey listening through the tracks, ‘Tryin’ to Make a Livin’ in the USA’ is quirky and tongue in cheek, and if I was to pick one here, I got it right next to me. Lemme look a second. It’s hard to pick one. It’s like picking a favorite child. People mention ‘What Color is Love’ a lot. It’s Rob Hyman from the Hooters favorite song. For me, I’d probably have to say, ‘An Irish Goodbye,’ because we play it at every show. It really resonates. I like all of ’em. I think ‘What Color is Love’ is pretty special and ‘An Irish Goodbye.’ It just comes alive every time we play it. But I’m looking at the list and I got to say I love every one of them. I’m always writing. I mean, I write as the songs come to me, sometimes more, sometimes less.
MNOD: I was going through your back catalog recently and thinking about the different eras you’ve gone through. I have an original vinyl copy of your first album, so I listened to that quite a bit. It feels as if some of the smaller labels you’ve been on have led to some of your best work in the last 25 or 30 years or so. I think that you’re operating at a peak creative level as you get older. Would you feel that way?
Nile: Absolutely. I mean, I’m 77-years-old now, which is a riot. My father’s 107, so I’ve got some longevity and I’m feeling good I think. So far, so good. But I don’t think there’s any question that I feel like I’m at the top of my game. I mean, I made nine albums in 12 years from 2009 to 2021. And then COVID happened, and I could have made another one right away, but I waited. And this one we made in ’24. So even though it’s been four years, it was really only three in the making of, and I was working on it in the meantime. But I think that the records I’m making now are just as good as anything I’ve done. I like all my work, I love my catalog. I’m very proud of it. But I think stuff’s just getting better and better. ‘Day of the Earth Stood Still,’ ‘The Yellow Light,’ ‘Children of Paradise,’ ‘American Ride,’ ‘World War Willie,’ ‘If I Was a River.’ I mean, it’s like I’m lucky, because usually as rockers get older, the quality of their songs is not as good or else they’re not writing at all or living on the early days. And in my case, it’s like ass backwards. I’m doing more work now than I was years ago. The thing on top of that is I’m still learning. I’m learning in the studio as I continue to record as a songwriter, I’m continuing to learn, and I try to be open. I try to be open to the world around me as best I can, and I’m just lucky that the songs are still coming. They are.
MNOD: Releasing nine records in 12 years is something that most artists simply don’t do anymore.
Nile: I mean, nine records in 12 years is one thing, but when the quality is really good, when they’re nine really good records humbly stated in 12 years, that’s something altogether different. I could put out 10 albums in 10 years, but that doesn’t make ’em any good. But I’m really proud of these records and from when I started putting my own records out with Beautiful Record of the World in 2000, and then it was 2006 Streets of New York, and that was through a buddy’s label. It’s a fun way to go.
MNOD: I always thought that ‘Places I Have Never Been’ should have been bigger. Did you feel that way at the time?
Nile: The thing with that is well absolutely, but there’s a lot of right time, right place with that stuff. There was a lot of some people in the industry that thought that was going to be a big hit, but it was right time and right place. At the time that came out, my champion at the label was on the way out the door. I signed in ’88, the record when he was at the top of, he was at his peak at Columbia Records, and then when the album came out in ’91, he was on the way out the door. So, my champion was in the doghouse and the record just, I remember hearing someone quoted the head of the label saying this happened. This record happens in four weeks on its own or that’s it. Well, that’s not how records happen. They’ve got to be worked. And there were some people on the label that definitely tried for me, for which I’m grateful. It was just the wrong time and wrong place. Had it come out two years earlier, that would’ve been a different story.
MNOD: Yeah, I think a lot of the label’s philosophies in ’91 were changing anyway.
Nile: Yeah, you know what, it happens. I was aware of it at the time. I didn’t have a chip on my shoulder in any way. I’m glad I got to make the record. Roger McGuinn and Richard Thompson are on that record. Loudon Wainwright. There’s some great players on that record and I love that album. So, you do the best you can every time out and you just never know what the battlefield is. Sometimes it might be COVID, sometimes that might be wrong place, wrong label, wrong time, you don’t know. So you just put your best foot forward, and since it’s my label, I make the decisions. I’m having a ball, I’ve never had more fun than now, David. It’s been, it’s a lot more fun now than it’s ever been making records.
MNOD: Yeah, I mean, as much as I love that record, I think had it taken off as much as you hoped it would at the time, your career trajectory would’ve been different and you may not have been able to have the kind of fun you’re having now.
Nile: It would’ve been completely different. And it’s really hard. It’s really hard to tell. I mentioned to my father a couple months ago. I said in 1980 when I put my first record out and I was hyped up as the next big thing, that it occurred to me that had that record been a huge success and I’d become really rich and famous, I could be dead now. And you never know where the road will take you. You just try to take it as it comes and roll with it as it goes. That’s what I’ve been trying to do the best I can.
MNOD: Yeah, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 45 years since your first album came out.
Nile: That’s right. Crazy, huh?
MNOD: Do you ever go back and listen to any of those early albums at all or do you just leave them in the past?
Nile: Not really. I don’t really do that. I’m usually listening to whatever I’m currently working on. Once they’re mastered and we put ’em out, and the life of the record, I’m living it. And when I hear stuff from other records, I’m always amused, and it makes me smile. We did pretty good with that one, but I don’t go back and listen.
MNOD: When you do have a chance to decompress from your own stuff or from the road or anything like that, are there any bands currently that you listen to or any music that you get into?
Nile: Well, I’ve been listening to a little bit of JJ Cale. I’ve been listening to some. My buddy James Maddock, M-A-D-D-O-C-K. I’m actually going to go see him play live at about half an hour in New York here. Let’s see, what else? I’ve been listening to some Old Stones records lately. It’s a variety of stuff.
MNOD: Yeah. I set my son up with his own turntable recently, so he’s gotten into the Stones quite a bit.
Nile: Those records are still great. I grew up in Buffalo, and Buffalo radio was so great in the sixties, early sixties. It was just great radio, and I grew up listening to all that stuff and vinyl rocks.
MNOD: Do you have any plans to come back to Buffalo to play a show before the end of the year?
Nile: Yeah, December 5th there’s a show at the Town Ballroom, December 5th. The band and I are coming from New York City and we’re going to set the place on fire. We will be playing songs off the new album and some fan favorites. The shows these days, they just keep getting better. I’m not sure why. Whether it’s the set list or the band just keeps getting better, or a combination of both. But yeah, I can’t wait. I love the Town Ballroom. It’s one of my two favorite venues in the whole country and we’re coming back on December 5th and looking to raise the roof, so anybody who wants to have a great time on December 5th, come on out.
MNOD: Yeah, I’ve seen you there before. It was a great time, so I’ll definitely try to make it to that one.
Nile: Great, thank you. And tell Cooper that I say hello to him. Would you please? Tell him good luck with the new school year.
MNOD: Definitely, he’ll be excited to hear that.
Nile: Alright, brother. Thank you, David.
“The Great Yellow Light” was released on June 20, so do us all a favor and pay for a physical copy.
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