Welcome to part two of an interview I did with Willy DeVille in December 2007 for the German edition of Rolling Stone. It was published in their February issue, and this is the first time it's been published in English. We pick up the action with us talking about Willy's new CD Pistola. Be sure to read part one.I'd like to talk about some the songs on the album. Tell me a little bit about any particular inspiration, meaning, or intent that you might have had. Let's start with the first one "So Sir Real."I just wanted to write a really good rock and roll song with a great guitar line and a good lyric... but you know the world has become pretty scary, I don't remember it being this bad 20 or even 10 years ago, and so that's part of it - it gets to the point where it's harder and harder to believe that this stuff is going on - but of course it is."Been There Done That" (track two) - is just what it says, you know. I was having a conversation with Monk Boudreau and he was saying something about something, and I said now why in hell would I do that man, I've been there, done that. It stuck in my head. The rhythm developed out of that you know. Like I said it's much more New Orleans than reggae - the horns are very New Orleans.The fourth song, "Louise," is the only one on the album you didn't write - it sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it.It was written by Paul Seibel, he put out two albums, and I'm sure you could get them if you wanted; one was Jack-Knife Gypsy and the other was Woodsmoke & Oranges. I wasn't even sure he was alive, but Nina [Deville's wife] looked him up on the computer and we found him. So I called him up and said, "Hey, I've recorded one of your songs." He wanted to know which one and asked if I had the lyric and could he hear it. So I said yeah and played it for him - this was through the telephone you know so I told him not to expect much - but he really liked what I had done. 
I told him he should come on up and I'd love to play some music with him, and he said he couldn't any more - that the business had ripped the heart out of him. It's a shame you know, because I think he's just as good if not better than Dylan when it comes to lyrics."The Band Played On" (track five) is obviously about New Orleans....Yeah, that's right. The horns at the beginning are playing a funeral march. It was awful watching that you know. I had been down in the south west going through some personal stuff and I got back home to see this on the television. Man, it was devastating. I lived there 30 years. It felt horrible watching the streets where I used to hang out under water. So yeah this was my tribute to New Orleans.[NOTE: At this point we got into a brief conversation about New Orleans and the current situation down there. The majority of people who were displaced by the hurricane have still not been allowed to or are able to move home. The governments are dragging their feet on rebuilding all the housing and infrastructure - it's cheaper to keep the people in the displacement camps than it is to rebuild public housing which doesn't make big money for developers. According to Naomi Klein's latest book Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, they have no intention of rebuilding any of the poorer neighbourhoods where many of the musicians lived and performed - the plans for redevelopment include luxury condominiums, expensive hotels, and convention centres. One of the first steps they took in order to discourage people from returning was the privatization of public schools. There used to be 104 public schools servicing the area in and around New Orleans - there are now only four - the rest have all been issued with private charters.As I told Willy this he was repeating it to Nina and she knew about most of it already - I heard her say in the background, "Make you sure you mention about Brad Pitt using his own money to try and rebuild homes for people." I know that the two women who sing back up for Willy in the Mink DeVille band, Lisa West and Doreen Carter, are both from New Orleans so I asked Willy about them. He said that they've moved back there, but there's no work at all and that the tour is a blessing for them. Organizations like the Jazz Foundation of America are trying to raise money to replace instruments for people, and get them jobs playing in schools - but that's only short term - the real disaster in New Orleans is still going on as thousands of people are still living in refugee camps (nearly all of them black by the way) and may never see their homes again. It took Willy and I a couple of minutes to find the thread of our conversation after that - but we found our way back - he was obviously shaken up - and if you listen to this song you can hear how much he loves his New Orleans - and the heart and soul have been ripped out of it - never to be returned it seems.]
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
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