A charming, charismatic fellow appears on Americana artist Lucinda Williams’ new album, “Stories From a Rock n Roll Heart,” and in the pages of her new memoir, “Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You.” That fellow is named Bruce Springsteen.
When Williams and her band play the Riviera on Friday, there’s a good chance she will mention Springsteen — who contributes backing vocals to two of the album’s tracks and is name-checked (as “The Boss”) on the rollicking song “Let’s Get the Band Back Together.”
“Bruce is just so sweet,” Williams, 70, said via video chat from her Nashville home. “I just love him to death. He’s one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve met on that level. He’s a legend!”
In her captivating memoir, Williams recounts a 2005 dinner exchange between Tom Overby — who would later become her husband and manager — and Springsteen. Overby told Springsteen that he was deeply moved by an interview in which Springsteen talked about rock ’n’ roll metaphorically reaching into his house and pulling him out, lifting him into a larger world of opportunities.
About 16 years after that conversation, Overby, Williams and her tour manager Travis Stephens were writing a song titled “Rock n Roll Heart.” The songwriting trio included these Springsteen-esque lyrics, which nod to the interview Overby had read: “Rock ’n’ roll reached down into my house/ Reached right down and pulled me out.”
Overby had the ambitious idea of trying to get Springsteen to sing on the track. The Boss agreed. The recorded version on Williams’ new album includes backing vocals by Springsteen, as well as his wife, Patti Scialfa.
“Bruce and Patti both offered to sing on it,” Williams said. “They weren’t able to go in the studio where we are in Nashville, but we sent them the track, and they went in a studio where they live. They were both real enthusiastic about it. And Patti wrote this really nice email, saying how nobody’s writing songs like this anymore. So, we were just thrilled. I still get excited just thinking about it.”
Springsteen and Scialfa also provide backing vocals on “New York Comeback,” one of the album’s highlights.
Williams’ resilience has been tested in recent years. In November 2020, she suffered a debilitating stroke, which caused her to spend a week in an intensive care unit. Her speech and singing ability were not affected, but she had to relearn how to walk. She also found it extremely difficult to hold and strum a guitar. (This health scare is not described in her book.)
Without the physical ability to compose melodies on a guitar, she used a recording app on her phone, singing or humming melodies that would pop into her head. She turned to Overby, Stephens and New York City rocker Jesse Malin to help her compose the 10 tracks on the new album.
Williams said that her health has steadily improved over the past few years. She continues to work with a physical therapist.
“Everybody’s noticing a difference, saying how they see I’m walking better, and I seem like I’m stronger now,” she noted. “It’s harder for me to see the progress sometimes, but other people can see it.”
Williams’ goal is to play guitar comfortably again — but she’s not there yet.
“I’ve still got some pain in my fingers when I press down on the strings [on the guitar neck] to make a chord,” she explained. “I remember how to make the chords. I just have a hard time. When I press down on the strings, it hurts,” she said, pointing to the index finger on her left hand.
Williams, a three-time Grammy winner, is accustomed to receiving accolades for her music. But lately she has earned rave reviews for her prose. She embraced the challenge of recording an audio edition of her book.
“You have to get a little distance from it emotionally and imagine how the listener is going to respond,” she said, regarding the process of recording the audiobook. “Basically, I just read it. I tried to put enough emotion in it to make it interesting. I found myself actually getting a little emotional during the process, which I didn’t expect.”
The memoir includes a poetic postscript, filled with recommendations “on living a good life.” The last sentence is: “Watch a caterpillar in the sun.”
When asked about the significance of that line, Williams mentioned the influence of her late father, the esteemed poet Miller Williams. “The whole point of that [line] was, never lose your sense of wonder,” she said. “He used to tell me that. I think that’s a good rule of thumb to live by.”
