Paul Westerberg and his Craft

A few weeks ago, I posted that Paul Westerberg was to be interviewed for The Craft, a type of "Inside the Actor's Studio"-like show for rock musicians.

Well, it happened over the weekend and Jon Bream, music critic for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, was there for Billboard with a report. Among the more interesting tidbits....

"Appearing in front of 500 people on a legendary nightclub stage converted into a talk-show set, Westerberg performed one new song, "Everyone's Stupid," which he explained was about a friend of his now 9-year-old son who was the last to know about his parents' impending divorce. The song was from the kid's point of view.

The singer also offered a 'Mats outtake, "Make the Best of Me, " which he said the band rejected as being too "spiritual" during the "All Shook Down" era.

Zanes had Westerberg pick four favorite songs -- the Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye," the Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice," the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and Jimmy Reed's "You Got Me Running" -- and talk about them. One of the night's highlights was when Westerberg, after saying "I wish I could play it," spontaneously played the J5 smash as an instrumental on acoustic guitar."

- Chris Riemenschneider of Minneapolis Star Tribune blogged about it and wrote up the setlist. Good stuff.

- Look for video (eventually) at the Rockhall site.