Q: Patti, I wanted to wish you a belated Happy New Year, Happy New Decade, Happy New Century, Happy Birthday. I wasn't sure if those traditional ways of looking at time mattered to you.

A: I enjoy a revolutionary point of view that breaks tradition apart, but I also do love tradition. I love history and I saluted the new century joyfully. So I'll go along with it.

Q: The last major work that you did was in 1998. It was a compilation book called "Complete." And now you have a new album called Gung-Ho, so now "Complete" isn't complete anymore.

A: Well, it's (laughs) -- yeah, it's incomplete. I'll have to do one called "Completed". We did update the paperback with as much of Gung-Ho as I had ready at the time. And what we will do is, on the new album, include all of the lyrics for those who want them. So I did the best I could to get them in under the wire for the paperback.

Q: The album title Gung-Ho, it has so many implications. What were you trying to communicate with the title?

A: Well, it's got two things. One, it's a play on words, because the title cut called Gung-Ho is an overview of the life of Ho Chi Minh, looking at what drove him as a patriot and a person who foresaw and worked all his life on creating an independent Vietnam. He was a very special man, but he was also a very common man. And I thought of him sort of like Gunga Din, who had those qualities. And so it has that "gung-ho" sort of play on words.

But also, when I was a kid, my father fought in World War II and my mother always used to use that term, "gung-ho". It was used for someone who was putting their whole heart and really believing in what they were doing and going into even a difficult task with positive idealistic energy. And I decided that I wanted to enter the new century like that. We have so many things that are wrong, so many difficult things. I wanted to go into the new century in a positive, work-oriented frame of mind.

Q: There's also the fact that "gung-ho" is a Chinese expression. And you've been so outspoken in trying to preserve Tibet's cultural heritage and return the Tibetans from exile. I know people talk a lot about this cause of late, but your interest in Tibet began when you were really young, I heard.

A: When I was about 12, I think I must have seen the movie about Shangri-La when I was a child. And ancient civilizations and ancient religions and Buddhism has always interested me since a child. And I started doing a report when I was 12. And I was in school and the teacher said, "Everyone can choose a country. You must spend a year doing a report." And I chose Tibet. And she said, "You can't choose Tibet. Nothing ever happens there. You have to have current events. You have to cut out articles in the newspaper. No one knows about Tibet." And I said, "I want Tibet." It was January of 1959. And the kids were laughing at me and teasing me, but I stood my ground and just couldn't find hardly a thing. And I used to pray, "oh, will something please happen in Tibet so I could write my report."

Well, in March of '59, they were invaded by the Chinese. And the Dali Lama, who I had gotten very attached to in my studies, was feared killed. And it was not exactly the news that I was praying for, and - but I became very aware of their situation. But what really struck me, was, my father had fought in World War II. He explained that he had fought in it to set an example and help the world be free. And I couldn't understand how my father had done all of this work and I thought all the wars were over. I couldn't understand why a country's freedom was being taken away and nobody seemed to care. So it's been on my mind for a long time.

When I was a 12-year-old girl, I prayed for his holiness. I prayed for the safety of the Dali Lama. Never in my life, as a skinny 12-year-old with a passion for Davey Crockett did I ever think one day I would be doing even some small help for the Tibetan people, but also I had the opportunity to meet and talk with His Holiness. And it just shows, you know, life -- it's unbelievable, life. If you stick around long enough, the most wonderful things will happen to you.

Q: Calls for activism and awareness in your music are nothing new. We could go back to Till Victory, People Have the Power. On the new album, you continue that tradition. The first song on the album, One Voice... there's Upright Come. Do you feel that it's your calling as an artist to try and inspire righteous change?

A: Well, I'm not a politician. I'm not articulate, politically. But I do find that I seem to have a calling to at least speak out. But then I'm an American citizen and that's part of the responsibility, I think, of being an American. We're free. We have freedom of choice and -- we have a responsibility to that. And also, I look around at other people and the work that they do. For instance, One Voice, was very inspired by the work that Mother Theresa did. I look at this little woman, you know, this one small woman and the tremendous impact she had on thousands and thousands of people. Not only with her hands-on work, but the way she inspired others to perform simple acts of charity throughout the globe that will mean so much to a person. And that's why it says in One Voice, "every action" -- you know, I can't remember the words, even. But great or small, the idea is that they're all appreciated.

Q: The first song we heard from Gung-Ho a few minutes ago, was called Glitter In Their Eyes. I read it as kind of a rage against this rampant consumerism that's going on right now. And, Patti you seem to live a relatively austere life. What inspired you to write Glitter in their Eyes?

A: Well, actually, Glitter In Their Eyes, I co-wrote with Oliver Ray. And it was actually Oliver's concept based on things that we talk about all of the time. And pretty much exactly what you said. The concept of the song was -- well, it's actually addressed to young people to, as it says, "look out kids, the gleam, the gleam." It's sending out, both a warning and both just a caring salute to young people who are constantly being exploited by business. They're targets. Young people aren't -- children aren't children anymore, they're a demographic. And they're a consumer demographic. And that's one of the things, like you said, is the rampant consumerism. But not just on the part of the consumer, but on the part of people who see people as potential consumers.

It goes through every phase of life. Oliver and I were recently in Cambodia. And we were looking at the temples of Ankgor Vat. And the beggar children who by the hundreds sell little souvenirs for a living. Right now, Ankgor Vat is being targeted by Korean businessmen, who see it as a big money-making tourist attraction. And what they want to do is come in, get rid of all these beggar children, of course. And Patti Smith they're already starting to build huge hotels and have their own souvenir stores. It's like they're the people with the glitter in their eyes.

Q: Along with the external-looking songs that we were talking about on Gung-Ho, there are also songs that look within. The next song we're going to hear is Lo and Beholden. I was wondering if this was your own current romantic situation set behind some poetic veil?

A: Well, it's not, not really. What, what this song is -- this is a real classic Patti Smith/Lenny Kaye song, I think in, because the music is so much like Lenny. It's taken from the point of view of Salome, who has been exploited by both her father-in-law, King Herod, and her mother. Her youth and beauty being exploited so that they can -- King Herod because he's after a piece of her youth and beauty. Her mother because she wants the head of John the Baptist. So this beautiful girl has forever been tainted. She's known as one of the villainesses in the Bible because she was always a simple, beautiful girl, asked to dance and used by her mother to get the head of John the Baptist. That's what it directly is, applies to. But indirectly, how we're also exploiting youth and beauty these days. Girls are being exploited terribly. And people are being exploited because of their desire for celebrity and things like that. They're being exploited by these talk shows like Jerry Springer and stuff. They'll reveal anything about themselves or make up things about themselves to seem important. And everybody's important. You don't have to do something like that to make yourself important. Just by being alive, we're important.

Q: Patti, there's a beautiful harp on the song we just heard, Lo and Beholden. For the last 25 years, for the most part, you've played with the same core group of musicians. Is it simply a matter of loyalty for you or is the idea of being in a long-term rock-and-roll band part of what gets you off?

A: I never came into recording as musician or anyone with any training or even any desire to do records. I really came into recording as a performer who was concerned about the state of rock and roll. My only concept of performing was that people had a real group, like The Rolling Stones. And I thought, when you have your group, that's your group.

The only reason I've made changes in my group at all in time was if a person was ill... had to leave for a while. In the Patti Smith Group, we had our core group. And to me, that was a rock and roll band. That's what I had, a rock and roll band. There was no pretenses of us doing anything else. And I was completely untrained and just going on instinct and also sort of an idealistic idea of what a rock and roll band was, which includes the loyalty, the camaraderie and, you know, the struggle. That meant more to me than trying to make things technically perfect or having the optimum guitar player or something. I just liked the people that I worked with. We all believed in the same things.

Lenny Kaye and Richard Sohl and I started together. And Richard Sohl was a very gifted piano player. He was classically-trained. And just a wonderful person to work with and improvise with, who I thought I'd work with my whole life. And he died of congenital heart failure in '91. Which was really difficult for me to lose him. Jay Dee Daugherty is the only drummer I've ever had.

Lenny Kaye has always been my most avid supporter and continues to help in all different aspects of the work. And he brought in Tony Shanahan when I did Gone Again. He's a very gifted musician and has some of the musical temperament that Richard had, even though he's a bass player. And Oliver Ray, who has, who has a real revolutionary spirit, who's a poet and also brings youth into the group. And we, we started struggling together on Gone Again. And believe me, it was a struggle because we were at all different levels of experience. And I hadn't played for like 15 years. But we have struggled in the past few years and this is our third album together. And I really feel like now we're a true rock and roll band. And that's really all I want - is just a true rock-and-roll band.

Q: Except for a couple of songs, most of the songs on Gung-Ho are co-written with one other band member. I was curious how you decided which of your band members you were going to bring a lyric to to collaborate on?

A: I rarely write lyrics first. I improvise in the practice room. Lenny brought the music to Lo and Beholden and the band played it. And I just improvised, and the song, whatever, how the song felt, is what I gleaned from it. Gung-Ho was written because I was studying Ho Chi Minh. I had read several books about him, read, read all of his works. I walked in the practice room and they were riffing -- you know, the band had this riff and I listened to it and I loved it. And it just drew me to the microphone. And I started improvising what became Gung-Ho. That's pretty much how I work.

Q: Parts of Gung-Ho are a little more fleshed-out and full than the approach of Peace and Noise and Gone Again. Was that a result of working with Gil Norton, who had worked with Counting Crows and the Pixies and how did you choose him to work with?

A: Well, I think it's two things. First of all, Gil Norton and his engineer, Danton Supple, are great. They're really great to work with. They're highly respectful. They allowed for us to be who we were, but give us, you know, their expertise and ideas about sound. But they never were invasive. They just enhanced everything that we did. Working with them was a really great experience. It was tough, but really great.

I think the other thing -- why this record sounds better and seems even more fully realized, that now we, as a band, have spent four years together. Gone Again was made just as best we could, because Fred passed away, I was greatly dispirited, I didn't really have a band and it was hard for me to even want to record. So that was really an act of a lot of people coming together, keeping my spirits up. Lenny. Tom Verlaine came in on it. All of the same band members.

And Peace and Noise, I was still getting my feet back on the ground and re-learning how to record and perform myself, as everyone else was learning. And we were learning to play together and knowing each other as people. Now, we've been through all kinds of things together and I think this album reflects, the trust and the strength that we've built, with a lot of struggle. I think it reflects that. But much, much credit to our producer and engineer.

Q: Before your late husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, left in '94, he was giving you guitar lessons. But you held and manipulated a guitar onstage since the early days. And then I noticed you wrote two of Gung-Ho's songs by yourself. So I'm thinking you're still keepin' up with the six-string.

A: In the ‘70s I got very involved in the sonic aspects of the electric guitar. And I worked really hard. I wasn't interested in chords. I didn't bother learning chords in the ‘70s. I was totally interested in feedback, sound. And Fred actually helped me with that. He helped me wire a Fender Twin in a special way, ‘cause he was the king of feedback. But that was my essential interest in electric guitar, was sound.

In '94 I really had the desire to write my own little songs, because, like sort of these little Appalachian-style songs were coming into my head or I would – I would sing them a cappella. But I had the desire to try to work them out, ‘cause often I'd forget them. And he promised me he would show me chords if I practiced hard. And I had an old ‘30s Gibson, an acoustic guitar, which I still have. And he showed me every chord, except we ended and I never got a B chord. But I know all the other chords. That was the last thing that Fred taught me, was, rhythm, getting a good rhythm, and my chords. And since then I've written actually several songs. And I always think about that, you know, it was like the last gift he gave me. And I've used it well.

Q: Are you keeping up with your clarinet playing?

A: Oh yeah I play a lot of clarinet and I play in the band structure a lot of clarinet. I'm actually really proud of my clarinet playing. Fred, also, of course, introduced me to clarinet. Bought me my mouthpiece and gave me my first clarinet lessons.

Q: You've explored so many avenues of expression over the years, besides poetry and music, beginning in the early days with theater and photography, drawing, painting. I also heard you were working on a novel at one point. Does alternating media keep you fresh?

A: In some ways it's also very difficult, because -- I'm very lucky to be able to express myself in a lot of different genres, but it's also -- I have a restless nature going from one to another and it makes it harder to finish things. So it's a mixed blessing. The one great thing about it, I've found, is that if you work hard on one skill, it will often permeate the other. You know, I find if I'm working on the clarinet quite a bit, it helps my singing, it helps my breathing. It takes a lot of discipline for me to finish all of these lyrics and go through the whole process of making an album. But it proves to me, again, that I can finish something. So then when I go to a book project, when I get dejected or I get, you know, bored or demoralized, I can access the fact that I can finish things if I stick to it.

Q: It seems that the artistic vibe also is permeating in your household and in your family. The last album's title Peace and Noise was conceived by your daughter Jessie. I think I read that she plays some piano. And the next song we're going to hear, Persuasion, your son Jackson, plays guitar on. I was wondering how old Jessie and Jackson were now, and is it by watching you that they became inspired to make their own art?

A: Well, first of all, Jessie's 12. She's a 12-year-old girl, and she's exploring many things. She writes. She's really looking at the whole world right now. And she's curious about the whole world.

Jackson is 17. And he really picked up guitar after his father passed away. He was about 12 years old. And Jackson actually has a lot of his father's gifts. He didn't know that he had them. He didn't show any real interest in music until after his father passed away. He really wanted to be an ice cream man for a long time. But he has his father's gifts. And he spends a lot of time, you know, studying different guitar players and different styles of music. Everything from Renaissance music to Danny Gatton. But he's very involved in the playing of the music and learning. He's not interested in the music business or anything like that.

I really think that the things that Jackson and Jessie do or find will be by their own volition. They were well brought up, and there were a lot of different types of things open to them musically and artistically. But I think that both of them will make their own decisions. I as their, you know, surviving parent, can only influence them so much. I really am more interested in -- of being an influence in how they take care of themselves and how they treat other people. In terms of their work, they'll make those decisions.