Over four decades ago, when Mike Scott started The Waterboys, the very first song they released saluted the art of somebody else. “A Girl Named Johnny”, issued in 1983, swooned over the androgynous daring of Patti Smith. In the years since, Scott has written entranced odes to an entire constellation of maverick stars, including Hank Williams (“Has Anyone Here Seen Hank?”), Elvis Presley (“I Can See Elvis”), Hendrix (“The Return of Jimi Hendrix”) and Van Morrison (“The Soul Singer”).
“It’s just a quirk in my personality,” says Scott, 66, of his favoured motif as he sits in his home studio in Dublin for a video interview. “I like writing songs about people. And these just happen to be very interesting people.”
