Patti Smith appeared today on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast promoting the paperback edition of her 2019 book The Year of the Monkey, her relationships with Chelsea hotel denizens like William S. Burroughs and her “cowboy writer” Sam Shepherd, and the time Allen Ginsberg tried to pick her up because he thought she was “a very pretty boy.” Check out the whole thing below.
In September Smith performed her song “People Have the Power” virtually with Michael Stipe, Joan Baez, Cyndi Lauper, Angélique Kidjo, and more in coordination with Pathway to Paris. She was awarded the 2020 PEN Literary Service Award, given annually to an author who writes about “the human condition.”
Read Pitchfork’s 5-10-15-20 interview with Marc Maron.