Elvis Costello

Episode notes

(Photo: Rich Fury / Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

We’ve got a favorite from the Bullseye archives: the legend Elvis Costello.

Costello grew up surrounded by music. His mother ran the record section of British department store chain, Selfridges. His father was an accomplished working musician. As Costello describes in his memoir, Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink, he didn’t intend to make music himself, but felt eventually drawn to it.

The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and record producer has enjoyed a long career, working on his own and collaborating with other musicians like The Specials, Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, and Annie Lennox.

Costello is celebrating the 49th anniversary of his debut album My Aim is True. Recently, a five CD box set was released to commemorate the occasion. The release features 104 tracks, with over 50 never-before-heard recordings on it.

When we spoke to Costello, he had just written his memoir: Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. He talked about his father’s career and love of music, what inspired him to write a memoir and who knows him by his legal name: Declan McManus.

A version of this interview originally aired in October of 2015.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Arón Speer

Video Editor

Hannah Moroz

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

Elvis Costello

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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