Lana & Joan Baez cover The New York Times Magazine April 2023 Issue [INTERVIEW]

[Elle 102,773]

Lana Del Rey Wanted to Sing With Joan Baez. But First, She’d Have to Find Her.

The musicians on the audition that changed them both — and the “secret to real success.”

view photoshoot here

 

Joan Baez: In 2019, Lana, whom I’d heard about from my granddaughter, Jasmine, invited me to sing with her in Berkeley. I said, “Why? Your audience could be my great-grandchildren.” And she said, “They don’t deserve you.”

Lana and I are sort of opposites. When I was starting out, I wouldn’t let anyone else onstage. I had two microphones — one for me, one for my guitar — and I stood barefoot, singing sad folk songs. I didn’t even write for the first 10 years, and she’s a songwriter.

I stopped singing three years ago; it was time to move on. After 60 years as a musician, I started painting. An artist friend said I need to loosen up and make mistakes so, if a painting isn’t working out, I dunk it twice in the swimming pool to see if it becomes something interesting. A hose will also do.

If people want to learn from me, I tell them to look beyond the music to my engagement with human and civil rights. My voice was what it was, but the real gift was using it. A documentary has just been made about me [“Joan Baez I Am a Noise,” 2023]. There’s footage of me marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Grenada, Miss., in 1966. At another point in the film, I mention in a letter to my parents that I want to save the world. Lana doesn’t make such grand political statements — at Berkeley, she brought me out to do it for her. And yet, amid the colorful chaos and glitter of her show, she was at one point, I believe, barefoot.

 

Lana Del Rey: I was having a show at Berkeley three years ago and wanted Joan to sing “Diamonds & Rust” (1975) with me. She told me she lived an hour south of San Francisco, and that if I could not only find her but also sing the song’s high harmonies on the spot, she’d do it. I was given a vague map to get to a house distinguishable only by its color and the chickens running in the yard. At one point during my audition, she stopped me with a steely look to let me know I didn’t get it right. By the end, she said, “OK, that’s good. I’ll sing with you.”

Midway through the performance, I said to the audience, “I have someone coming onstage who is the most generous-of-spirit singer I know, and the most important female singer of the ’60s and ’70s, and we’re gonna do ‘Diamonds & Rust’ together.” After the show, we went to an Afro-Caribbean two-step club, and she told me not to stop dancing until she did. That’s what my song “Dance Till We Die” (2021) is about. 

I think the secret to real success is to make sure you’re always emotionally intact. I learned that from Joan. I recently said to her, “I just want you to know that I’m keenly aware that, in this lifetime or any other, I have no right to be standing shoulder to shoulder with you.” And she replied, “Oh, shut up.” 

 

[TropicoKitten 4,524]

Omg we’re being fed so well this era

[PARADIXO 28,897]

[EndlessSummer 3,131]

Photographed by Katy Grannan

 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Coh4uE2JzHi/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[Jeanne Dielman 5,568]

I’m moving. 

[The Grants 12,241]

the waiting is gonna be worth it. we have Interview, Billboard, Rolling Stone (likely) and now NYT 

[burthday kake 16,319]

oh my god  we love two female legends <333

[GeminiLanaFan 44,179]

Very plausible, just like in the NFR era, when we got a couple of interviews and photoshoots after the album release. 

[summer bummer 1,748]

I'm moving... there seems to be a lot coming in the future so at least we'll have loads to look forward to soon... we're just currently in the waiting stage 

 

(Lana and Joan both look absolutely gorgeous, btw) 

[Jeanne Dielman 5,568]

Lana and Joan Baez. This will be legendary!  

[kristinaj 1,165]

This era is shaping up to be legendary  

[Honeyyoung 16,403]

omg she's back to being fully out there!! 4 or 5 magazine covers??

[420cait 4,063]

watch this be her best era since NFR 

[burthday kake 16,319]

I've been coverin Joni & New York Times w Joan- its kinda hard to find luv when ur used to rollin like a rollin stooooone.

[burthday kake 16,319]

Joan Baez introduce Lana & Bob Dylan challenge btw   I've been waiting for this moment (meetup of the millennium)

[Americen Whore 5,298]

The hair & makeup artist “Can’t share too much but Chickens are involved” 

[Vertimus 8,171]

I've just been listening to some of Joan's 70s work I had forgotten about--'Yellow Coat,' 'Luba the Baroness,' 'Sailing,' 'The Song at the End of the Movie'--so I'm in a perfect mood for this, and it strengthens their tie publicly. Hopefully we'll get some good information about what initially brought Joan to Lana's work.  

[Elle 102,773]

I wonder if this video she shared on her stories on Friday night/Saturday morning was from after the shoot since she had her makeup professionally done! x

 

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[daylight nightmare 12,400]

we are feed this era

[Super Movie 50,170]

This is my Christmas  Two of my favorite women. I love their friendship and artistry so much