HW: You are an evolving artist so is there anything brand new you’d like to try some day? Personally I think you could make a killer funk album!
TL: (laughs) Yeah, I’d love to make like a world music record, kind of like a Paul Simon thing. I’d also love to do a vibey record, something like Zero 7, something real sonic-landscape, where it just feels like a down-comforter (laughs) just warm, and great colors and sounds, something like Sade, like oooo it’s just smooooth! That would be a fun record to make.
HW: Well, how far do you see yourself going in your career? Do you have any desire to retire and just relax, by the age of, let’s say, 50?
TL: I’d say by the age of 50 I’d really love to be like Tom Petty. To be in that position where when I want to go out, then it’s such a joy to be just out singing all night. Ideally, I want to spend more time at home, being more of a writer and producer, and touring more so when I want to, not because I need to. I’m sort of still at that stage where, this is my career, the bulk of it now is touring. It would be nice to go hmmm, it’s been a year, it’s been 7 months, it’s been 8 months, I’ve got a new record, I’d like to go play a show, cool. Get the team together, we’re going out. I would love to be out there on the road with my family. I get to see so much, and experience so much-
HW: And you want them to share it with you.
TL: Yeaaah. To be out there on the bus with the wife, and the kids, and the tutor. Not that I want my kids to see (waves arm around *Side note* We were doing the interview in a weirdly cool room, but in that funky obscene-graffiti-on-the-walls-with-no-A/C-and-worn-couches-all-around kind of way. Trust me, he had a good point) you know, the bowels of rock & roll, and grow up around pot smoking groupies. But you know, I get to see the Smithsonian three times a year, what the hell? And I never get to take my kids there?! That’s not fair (laughs) it’s an injustice.
HW: That brings up the topic of sacrifices again. Do you ever feel like you have given up too much, or had to lose too much, to gain the popularity that you have right now?
TL: No. The only sacrifice is the team-work at home. There’s nothing that I don’t have in my life that I- I’ve never been terribly sentimental, in terms of holidays and birthdays, and stuff you know. So much of my life is fun and exciting, and there’s constantly something new and vibrant, that an annual holiday or anniversary, is just that. So, yeah, I don’t get nostalgic for things I don’t already have. I don’t think I’ve had to cough up too much. Obviously, the kids get older and you start to see the impact your absence has on them and it’s like “Oof! This kind of sucks!” and you’re not enjoying this. But it also kind of forces you to see things from different angles, and realize again that you do the best you can, and I feel like that’s all I can do.
HW: Is it important to you that fans get as many glimpses as possible of who you truly are? Is privacy ever an issue for you?
TL: It is, it is. And not that I have people following me around with cameras and banging on my door, I don’t ever want that. But I also don’t tweet or facebook much about my family, if anything. If I wasn’t a musician and constantly updating my fans on what’s going on with my career, I wouldn’t be on twitter, it’s not that important. My work, I take pride in, and it is important and I want people to be a part of it. To me, the social media network, every time something came along, in my head, I would think “how can I make use of that for my work?”, it was never like, “oh cool, I get to share pictures of my baby with 15,000 fans on myspace”. No. They don’t need that. So, yeah, there is a line there.
HW: You know, music artists whom people can relate to, tend to be open and honest within their work. Do you ever feel like you reveal too much in your songs?
TL: Um, sometimes. Sometimes I think maybe I said too much. But then again, I feel like I have such a reverence for the songs themselves, not so much my part in their existence, but hey I was there at such and such time and this came to me, people are going to relate to it, people are going to feel it. You can’t try and put limits on it. I guess maybe that’s the trade-off, it’s that I am a bit more private in my personal life and with music, if it’s gotta be said, it’s gonna get said.
HW: It’s just honesty, you can’t control what that turns out to be.
TL: Right, right.
HW: You described the subject matter of RWTA as almost being the polar opposite of what you’ve done before, this is more positive and uplifting. Are you more content with your life as it is now?
TL: Oh yeah, yeah. Very settled, some might say too settled you know, like, an artist needs to kind of suffer. I don’t really think so (laughs). There’s just a great deal of purpose to what I’m doing now, there’s a clarity that was missing for years. I’m much more relaxed, appreciative of things, and respectful.
HW: So, I think this is the most personal question I’m going to ask you. What did you have to go through to get to this point that you’re at right now?
TL: Probably the biggest thing I went through was coming to terms with my relationship with drugs and alcohol. Not some horrible rock & roll, rock-bottom thing, but I did come to terms with the fact that I was sabotaging my efforts.
HW: As an artist?
TL: As an artist, as a person, as a friend, as a lover, as a father. So once I realized that, I was just like wow, and it just became cruel.
HW: How did you realize that? I mean, it’s never easy.
TL: Well specifically, I had an opportunity that I otherwise could and should have completely capitalized on, and I was literally too drunk to take advantage of it. Caught up in my own weird coping mechanisms. Once again, just another case of me going “Damn! All you had to do was X, Y, and Z and you’re off doing A, B, and C man”.
HW: That always seems so simple to everyone else though, it’s so logical to everyone else.
TL: Oh, totally! Totally! And it took me a long time to figure that shit out, but in the end I did.
HW: I’m honestly really glad you got to that point. And you’re still doing this, and you have a family.
TL: Yes, thank you. I have a lot given to me (laughs) a lot to wake up to every day and continue to strive for and take pride in.
HW: Absolutely. I mean, it wasn’t simply handed to you.
TL: No it wasn’t, so there’s a lot to be grateful for.
HW: Well, final question. Do you think, or even hope, that years from now you will be one of those artists budding singers and musicians look back on and say “I want to be that guy!”?
TL: Yeah man, that would be cool. I wonder about that now too. There’s nothing more creepy than getting on Youtube and seeing complete strangers around the world covering your songs.
HW: I love that you used the word “creepy” and not “flattering”!
TL: (laughs) No I mean, I’m very flattered, very flattered but wow. I mean, someone sat there with my record and listened to that song enough times to learn it, and are inspired by it, and motivated by it, so, wow, yeah. That’s awesome (laughs). I know that when I’m writing I think, what would Joni Mitchell say, how would Bruce Springsteen put it? It’d be cool if someone said “How would Lucca put it?”
HW: What would Tony Lucca do.
TL: Mhmm! I won’t lie (laughs).
HW: I’m sure it’s happening already.
TL: Well, hey, that would be great.
HW: Thank you so much for this, I know you’re exhausted.
TL: No, no, thank you for doing this.
And that’s all folks! Tony Lucca is officially the man who has it all, exactly as he wants it!
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