April 7, 2025 • 12 mins
It’s fair to say Bruce Hornsby is a bit of a legend in the music game.
Even a casual fan will know ‘The Way It Is’, the intro often considered the greatest piano intro of all time, and finding even more fame thanks to Tupac using it in ‘Changes’.
He began his career in the 80’s, and since then, some of the biggest and best have cited his influence, including the likes of Willie Nelson and Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Hornsby is showing no signs of slowing – releasing four albums so far in this decade alone.
Although he’s found great success in his career, Hornsby told Mike Hosking he was a pretty bad “popstar”.
“I was gonna do what I was gonna do whether it was successful or not,” he said.
“Always been a musician first, and I was a bit of a creatively restless soul.”
His music has become more experimental over the years, much to the chagrin, he says, of his long time fans.
“I’m just interested in evolving and pushing,” Hornsby told Hosking.
“So when, when I lose, hopefully when I lose a certain old time fan, that he just hates it, hopefully I garner some newer and most likely younger fans.”
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bruce Hornsby has a style on the piano you can
recognize anywhere, anytime. The way it is was the start,
of course, but surely Scenes from the south Side is
as good as any album anywhere ever. He's collaborated with everyone,
hung out for years with the Grateful Dead, co written
with the best, and still tours. It's a crime we've
never really had him on the program before, but we
can fix that now. Bruce Hornsby is with us. Good
(00:20):
morning and to.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You, Mike, I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Just just for reference, we've been talking about my name
off here I have you. I don't even know where
to start up, and trying to talk to you for
forty something years. I'm a massive fan see see Scenes
from that. Let me tell you the story. So scenes
CD's came into my life in the eighties. Right first
CD I ever bought was Graceland Paul Simon second album,
(00:47):
Scenes from the south Side, still as good as it gets.
Did you not when Scenes from the south Side came out?
Did you know you had something? Mega?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I wouldn't say I knew that. I never know any
I'm too close to it. It's hard to keep perspective
on something that people ask me what it's like to
make a record. I say, and take your all time
favorite song that you love more than any song, and
imagine somebody straps you into a chair and forces you
to listen to that song a thousand times. Several things
(01:19):
would happen. One, you'd never want to hear it again.
You'd be totally burnt with it. Two, you would be
becoming numb to it. And so in the face of
that massive repetition that is making records, uh, you have
to retain some sort of objectivity about it. And that's
(01:40):
incredibly difficult because of what I just said. So people go, wow,
I hope I never make a record again after that description. So, yeah, no,
I did not know. That's my long winded askwer to say, No,
I didn't know. My second record, Scenes from the South Side,
was was my attempt to cement the idea that this
(02:02):
is my sound for what it's worth a lend drum
machine and a piano, and so that's what I did deliver.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So, having followed you, what you seem to do more
these days is experiment your musically. Experimentally you're doing you
know this why music that you're doing in the collaborations,
how has commercial or how did commercial success sit with
you juxtapose with your desire just to do what you
want to do musically.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I was always pretty bad at it. That was
a pretty bad quote unquote pop star. I used to
just say, as the rits would say, maybe you use
this phrase too, we used to just take the piss
out of it and not take it too seriously, maybe
to our detriment. People would go, well, why are you
(02:55):
guys doing this in your videos? Why are you just
having your friends dancing around? I said, well, because it's
just excuse to get my friends on MTV. We don't
care about the rest of it. So again, I was
not a great personality in that way. I didn't care
about it, but the success. Look, I was going to
(03:17):
do what I was going to do, whether it's successful
or not. I mean, I've just always been a musician first,
and I was a bit of a creatively restless soul.
And it's just gradually moved you mentioned recently, and certainly
recently my records have been more adventurous, much to the
chagrin of a lot of my longtime fans who would
prefer I do like a whole lot of other people
(03:39):
who came out in the eighties or the seventies who
make the same records stylistically every time. Now, that's basically
what their longtime fans want. That's a total prison creatively
for me. So I could never do it. I'm just
interested in evolving and pushing.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So when I lose, hopefully, when I lose a certain
old time fan that he just hates it, hopefully.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I garner some newer and maybe most likely younger fan
who goes, Wow, this is not this is not who
who we thought this guy was, and we like this
new guy better.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Do you have that ongoing issue with your audience because
I was watching a thing you did last year in
the BBC. You know, when you record with an Augustra
and you've done this for years each it's the same song,
it's the hit song, but the intro will be different,
the way you sing it'll be different. Is that this
is what you do and that's that, and the audience
can love it or height it. That's life.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, I feel like that's that's very that's a fairly
conservative move relative on my part. The way I play,
the way it is what you're referring to, I'm sure
related to other things I do, so I don't know
what to say about that if someone thinks that my
(05:03):
version of the way it is that I played with
the BBC Radio Orchestra last year live across the UK,
along with two other songs mine Yes, Yeah. One of
them was a big hit in America. Song I wrote
with Don Henley was a hit for him, The End
of the Innocence. The other one is also notable in
a different way, but in more of an indie underground way.
(05:25):
Several years ago I was reached out by the great
justin Vernon of the great indie band Boney Vere, who
comes over there and plays at least Australia. They probably
come to New Zealand as well. They do very well there.
They played this in the Opera House, et cetera, et cetera,
and I started working with him. It was just like
when I was coming up, I've got reached out. I
(05:47):
was reached out to by a lot of my heroes.
I ended up working with a lot of my heroes.
And that was sort of painting yourself into the mural
that you'd been looking at as a young man, and
all of a sudden you're in it. And that was
I get chill was thinking about that, but then it
reversed for me in a beautiful way. Younger musicians spearheaded
by this one guy who was a big deal in
(06:08):
the indie world. I started working with all these younger
musicians that for whom I had been an inspiration to
them when they were coming up. So again it flipped around,
and so I played a song I wrote, I wrote
with justin Vernon and we did a duet, had a
duet on this song called Castuff, and that was the
(06:29):
third song.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It wasn't it. I'd recommend anyone go see it. Just
just look it up as really available to the BBC Radio
Orchestra from last year Live in Front just broadcast right
around the country. By the way, Bruce hero I, obviously
you're at the University of Miami this week here performing
your alumni, so you're going to be doing and this
goes to favorite songs the way it is, right, So
that's the song that people want. We had Billy Joel
(06:50):
on the program last year and I talked to him
about piano Man, and he doesn't like piano Man, he
doesn't like performing it. What's your relationship with a song
like that that you must have played like a million times.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well as you you you refer to this before because
you heard my version U uh we I have three
or four or five different ways of playing the songs,
and so that that's my way to guard against burnout,
to guard against when mister Joel there was talking about
(07:22):
uh but anyone can relate to that. It's it's so obvious.
It's such an old story. He old, oh, well, you've
got to do the hit hit thing. But for many
years I was pretty mean about it, in the teens
of this century. Uh maybe even the oughts, when I
would not play any of those songs. Now you have
(07:44):
to understand my my career is again using the word
disparate it stylistically all over the map. And one of
my main sort of top five resume items in the
world is that I play with the Grateful Dead for
eighteen twenty months. And so I was always an improviser.
(08:06):
I'm improvising on the way it is on the radio
that doesn't happen. I was. It was a wonderful accident
that happened. So, but that's who I am. So so
I am not I'm not a great vehicle for your
stroll down memory lane. But I'm not bad. I've gotten
nicer about it. I've gotten kinder about it.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
In my dulgage, I love it when you go back
to the University of Miami and a weekles so the
Frost School of Music is they is there something.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That let me let me say one thing about that
before you ask the question. Sorry to budd uh you said,
and you're playing the last That was my choice. I
just I said, hey, I'll just do that with this
beautiful string orchestra arrangement that I played with the BBC
or with the orchestra there. So that that was them
(09:00):
saying requiring or that, because if they required that, and
I would have just said, hey, well no, I'm sorry,
I'm not doing it. I don't care that much about
any of this, but I did it just just to
make it easy good for everybody. So that's that's the reason, sorry,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Not at all. Is that you giving back this the
the alumni returns. I mean, what a thrill it must
be for them to know when you went there and
be you're back giving to this this this Frost School
of Music.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well, I don't know how much of a thrill that
is for anybody there, but they asked that. Okay, the
reason I the reason I said yes, it's because I've
been saying no to them for several years. I started
a program. I endowed a program at my old school,
son tan you is what we used to call it
in Florida there and this is this is a program
(09:53):
called the Creative American Music Program can't the CAM program.
And it's a songletters program where where you're taught to
if you're taught the basic traditions of old time American
music that had been formed, the rock and R and B, soul, world,
uh pop, whatever, anything coming out of America or most
(10:16):
anything has been influenced or come from that deep well
of old time gut bucket, nasty old American folk and
blues and bluegrass, country, Cajun, on and on. So uh
So I started this program, funded it down there and
(10:37):
uh and so that's that's that's really My giving back
is fantastic. That's a very deep, uh contribution. I feel
I'm not trying to pat myself from the back, but
that compared to just doing a gig for their centennial
celebration as fine as fine, but no, what I did
(10:59):
about the teen years ago is my giving back moment
to you in.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It's brilliant what you haven't done. Bruce Hornsby is two
in New Zealand. I don't know that we can ever
fix that, but I'll tell you what a joy to
meet and talk with you. And if you ever come
here you more than welcome.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well, I'd love to do it. My son. I have
a son who played who just retired from playing pro basketball.
Is a very good player at the Great LSU Louisiana
State University. In college, he spent five years in Europe
and he had a couple of opportunities, potential opportunities to
come there. One was to play for a team into
(11:36):
that area, never New Zealand. But the Tasmanian jump jack Yes, asked,
we're recruiting him. His main thing was in Melbourne. United
made him an offer about a year ago. Year and
a half ago. It was alow offers about half what
he was making in Europe, so he didn't take it.
But a few days after turning it down, he thought
(11:57):
the better of him. Said man, I've always wanted to
come to play in Australia, And I said, yeah, I've
always wanted to play. I would if you go, I
will definitely book a tour. But he he what he
so he called him back and said, hey, sorry, I
reconsider it. They said they've already moved. Oh no, no,
(12:18):
that would have been my moment to come.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Fantastic listen, real thrill, Bruce, terrific to talk with you,
meet you and and maybe we can do it again sometime.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Sounds good. Okay, Mike, thanks and Nicole.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That was worth forty years worth of white I reckon
Bruce Hornsby For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Listen live to news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Bruce Hornsby has a style on the piano you can
recognize anywhere, anytime. The way it is was the start,
of course, but surely Scenes from the south Side is
as good as any album anywhere ever. He's collaborated with everyone,
hung out for years with the Grateful Dead, co written
with the best, and still tours. It's a crime we've
never really had him on the program before, but we
can fix that now. Bruce Hornsby is with us. Good
(00:20):
morning and to.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You, Mike, I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Just just for reference, we've been talking about my name
off here I have you. I don't even know where
to start up, and trying to talk to you for
forty something years. I'm a massive fan see see Scenes
from that. Let me tell you the story. So scenes
CD's came into my life in the eighties. Right first
CD I ever bought was Graceland Paul Simon second album,
(00:47):
Scenes from the south Side, still as good as it gets.
Did you not when Scenes from the south Side came out?
Did you know you had something? Mega?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I wouldn't say I knew that. I never know any
I'm too close to it. It's hard to keep perspective
on something that people ask me what it's like to
make a record. I say, and take your all time
favorite song that you love more than any song, and
imagine somebody straps you into a chair and forces you
to listen to that song a thousand times. Several things
(01:19):
would happen. One, you'd never want to hear it again.
You'd be totally burnt with it. Two, you would be
becoming numb to it. And so in the face of
that massive repetition that is making records, uh, you have
to retain some sort of objectivity about it. And that's
(01:40):
incredibly difficult because of what I just said. So people go, wow,
I hope I never make a record again after that description. So, yeah, no,
I did not know. That's my long winded askwer to say, No,
I didn't know. My second record, Scenes from the South Side,
was was my attempt to cement the idea that this
(02:02):
is my sound for what it's worth a lend drum
machine and a piano, and so that's what I did deliver.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So, having followed you, what you seem to do more
these days is experiment your musically. Experimentally you're doing you
know this why music that you're doing in the collaborations,
how has commercial or how did commercial success sit with
you juxtapose with your desire just to do what you
want to do musically.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I was always pretty bad at it. That was
a pretty bad quote unquote pop star. I used to
just say, as the rits would say, maybe you use
this phrase too, we used to just take the piss
out of it and not take it too seriously, maybe
to our detriment. People would go, well, why are you
(02:55):
guys doing this in your videos? Why are you just
having your friends dancing around? I said, well, because it's
just excuse to get my friends on MTV. We don't
care about the rest of it. So again, I was
not a great personality in that way. I didn't care
about it, but the success. Look, I was going to
(03:17):
do what I was going to do, whether it's successful
or not. I mean, I've just always been a musician first,
and I was a bit of a creatively restless soul.
And it's just gradually moved you mentioned recently, and certainly
recently my records have been more adventurous, much to the
chagrin of a lot of my longtime fans who would
prefer I do like a whole lot of other people
(03:39):
who came out in the eighties or the seventies who
make the same records stylistically every time. Now, that's basically
what their longtime fans want. That's a total prison creatively
for me. So I could never do it. I'm just
interested in evolving and pushing.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So when I lose, hopefully, when I lose a certain
old time fan that he just hates it, hopefully.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I garner some newer and maybe most likely younger fan
who goes, Wow, this is not this is not who
who we thought this guy was, and we like this
new guy better.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Do you have that ongoing issue with your audience because
I was watching a thing you did last year in
the BBC. You know, when you record with an Augustra
and you've done this for years each it's the same song,
it's the hit song, but the intro will be different,
the way you sing it'll be different. Is that this
is what you do and that's that, and the audience
can love it or height it. That's life.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, I feel like that's that's very that's a fairly
conservative move relative on my part. The way I play,
the way it is what you're referring to, I'm sure
related to other things I do, so I don't know
what to say about that if someone thinks that my
(05:03):
version of the way it is that I played with
the BBC Radio Orchestra last year live across the UK,
along with two other songs mine Yes, Yeah. One of
them was a big hit in America. Song I wrote
with Don Henley was a hit for him, The End
of the Innocence. The other one is also notable in
a different way, but in more of an indie underground way.
(05:25):
Several years ago I was reached out by the great
justin Vernon of the great indie band Boney Vere, who
comes over there and plays at least Australia. They probably
come to New Zealand as well. They do very well there.
They played this in the Opera House, et cetera, et cetera,
and I started working with him. It was just like
when I was coming up, I've got reached out. I
(05:47):
was reached out to by a lot of my heroes.
I ended up working with a lot of my heroes.
And that was sort of painting yourself into the mural
that you'd been looking at as a young man, and
all of a sudden you're in it. And that was
I get chill was thinking about that, but then it
reversed for me in a beautiful way. Younger musicians spearheaded
by this one guy who was a big deal in
(06:08):
the indie world. I started working with all these younger
musicians that for whom I had been an inspiration to
them when they were coming up. So again it flipped around,
and so I played a song I wrote, I wrote
with justin Vernon and we did a duet, had a
duet on this song called Castuff, and that was the
(06:29):
third song.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It wasn't it. I'd recommend anyone go see it. Just
just look it up as really available to the BBC Radio
Orchestra from last year Live in Front just broadcast right
around the country. By the way, Bruce hero I, obviously
you're at the University of Miami this week here performing
your alumni, so you're going to be doing and this
goes to favorite songs the way it is, right, So
that's the song that people want. We had Billy Joel
(06:50):
on the program last year and I talked to him
about piano Man, and he doesn't like piano Man, he
doesn't like performing it. What's your relationship with a song
like that that you must have played like a million times.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well as you you you refer to this before because
you heard my version U uh we I have three
or four or five different ways of playing the songs,
and so that that's my way to guard against burnout,
to guard against when mister Joel there was talking about
(07:22):
uh but anyone can relate to that. It's it's so obvious.
It's such an old story. He old, oh, well, you've
got to do the hit hit thing. But for many
years I was pretty mean about it, in the teens
of this century. Uh maybe even the oughts, when I
would not play any of those songs. Now you have
(07:44):
to understand my my career is again using the word
disparate it stylistically all over the map. And one of
my main sort of top five resume items in the
world is that I play with the Grateful Dead for
eighteen twenty months. And so I was always an improviser.
(08:06):
I'm improvising on the way it is on the radio
that doesn't happen. I was. It was a wonderful accident
that happened. So, but that's who I am. So so
I am not I'm not a great vehicle for your
stroll down memory lane. But I'm not bad. I've gotten
nicer about it. I've gotten kinder about it.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
In my dulgage, I love it when you go back
to the University of Miami and a weekles so the
Frost School of Music is they is there something.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That let me let me say one thing about that
before you ask the question. Sorry to budd uh you said,
and you're playing the last That was my choice. I
just I said, hey, I'll just do that with this
beautiful string orchestra arrangement that I played with the BBC
or with the orchestra there. So that that was them
(09:00):
saying requiring or that, because if they required that, and
I would have just said, hey, well no, I'm sorry,
I'm not doing it. I don't care that much about
any of this, but I did it just just to
make it easy good for everybody. So that's that's the reason, sorry,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Not at all. Is that you giving back this the
the alumni returns. I mean, what a thrill it must
be for them to know when you went there and
be you're back giving to this this this Frost School
of Music.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well, I don't know how much of a thrill that
is for anybody there, but they asked that. Okay, the
reason I the reason I said yes, it's because I've
been saying no to them for several years. I started
a program. I endowed a program at my old school,
son tan you is what we used to call it
in Florida there and this is this is a program
(09:53):
called the Creative American Music Program can't the CAM program.
And it's a songletters program where where you're taught to
if you're taught the basic traditions of old time American
music that had been formed, the rock and R and B, soul, world,
uh pop, whatever, anything coming out of America or most
(10:16):
anything has been influenced or come from that deep well
of old time gut bucket, nasty old American folk and
blues and bluegrass, country, Cajun, on and on. So uh
So I started this program, funded it down there and
(10:37):
uh and so that's that's that's really My giving back
is fantastic. That's a very deep, uh contribution. I feel
I'm not trying to pat myself from the back, but
that compared to just doing a gig for their centennial
celebration as fine as fine, but no, what I did
(10:59):
about the teen years ago is my giving back moment
to you in.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It's brilliant what you haven't done. Bruce Hornsby is two
in New Zealand. I don't know that we can ever
fix that, but I'll tell you what a joy to
meet and talk with you. And if you ever come
here you more than welcome.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well, I'd love to do it. My son. I have
a son who played who just retired from playing pro basketball.
Is a very good player at the Great LSU Louisiana
State University. In college, he spent five years in Europe
and he had a couple of opportunities, potential opportunities to
come there. One was to play for a team into
(11:36):
that area, never New Zealand. But the Tasmanian jump jack Yes, asked,
we're recruiting him. His main thing was in Melbourne. United
made him an offer about a year ago. Year and
a half ago. It was alow offers about half what
he was making in Europe, so he didn't take it.
But a few days after turning it down, he thought
(11:57):
the better of him. Said man, I've always wanted to
come to play in Australia, And I said, yeah, I've
always wanted to play. I would if you go, I
will definitely book a tour. But he he what he
so he called him back and said, hey, sorry, I
reconsider it. They said they've already moved. Oh no, no,
(12:18):
that would have been my moment to come.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Fantastic listen, real thrill, Bruce, terrific to talk with you,
meet you and and maybe we can do it again sometime.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Sounds good. Okay, Mike, thanks and Nicole.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That was worth forty years worth of white I reckon
Bruce Hornsby For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Listen live to news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com