A Conversation with Vassar Clements (continued)

PM: How many years have you been on the planet?

VC: 76.

PM: 76, boy. So what's your secret, then, for the type of long and happy life that you're obviously enjoying?

VC: I don't know. Doing what you love to do, going to church and the good Lord keeping you here above ground all these years. That's the main thing. I guess He's the main thing. And then us doing what we were meant to do. That's all I know I was here for. I try to do whatever I can. I try to help people. I don't hardly ever say no to anybody. I don't remember ever saying no.

There's been times I've been sitting up all night with somebody who knew just two chords. And some of those people will never forget that. I didn't look at it that way then, but now they come back, and they're a lot older, they remind me of what I did, and it's a good feeling.

PM: Wow. Yeah, it's a blessing for all of us that you grew up with a lot of jazz and swing, because I think that's the element and the sensibility that makes your virtuosity and your contribution so unique.

VC: Well, I think you might be right, because subconsciously, still, in anything I play or write, it seems like somewhere along the line I'll get something and I'll say, "Now, where did this come from? I didn't just think of this." And sometimes I might have thought of it, but a lot of times I have remembered a horn line that came from Harry James or Tommy Dorsey or Glenn Miller or something, and then I have changed it because I couldn't really remember it. And then time goes by and I'll remember something that this band or that person was playing, and it seems like it's part of that lick. I don't know, it could be a different lick entirely, but it reminds me of that, anyway. I'll put it like that.

PM: That's great. Are you finding the time lately to listen to much music, or are you too busy making it?

VC: No, I don't hardly ever hear any music. I should, I guess, but it seems like around this part of the country all you hear is the same thing.

[laughter]

VC: I don't why it is, they just sound alike.

PM: I heard that.

VC: Bless their hearts, they know it themselves. I've heard them say it here in Nashville, that country music is beginning to sound alike. Of course, I like to put the radio on the big band station and listen to that, because those songs I've heard all my life. They're great. And I like listening to jazz stations, that's good. But the country stations, I just don't know, I can't tell one from the other.

PM: Right.

VC: Bless their hearts, I wish they'd change that.

PM: [laughs] That's a nice way to say it.

[laughter]

VC: But I don't know, I shouldn't say it. They're making money, I guess.

PM: Oh, you can't say it any nicer than that, Vassar.

In our interviews, we like ask people what they've been reading lately. How about books--do you like to read much?

VC: Well, I don't see well enough to read a lot. My eyes, all the words will go together. I do read the Bible. I read maybe a book or two out of that, and it'll take me about a week to do that because I try to absorb it as I go. There are so many different ways of taking one word, and it means something else. So I just try to decipher everything, and like that. But as far as just reading anything, no, not much.

PM: The eyes just got too sketchy.

VC: Yeah. And I wear contacts, and sooner or later I'm going to have to have an implant, and take the cataracts out and the implant in, but they still said they're not bad enough yet.   continue

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