Ben Folds is one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation. His desire to push boundaries and find new ways to explore his craft, not only keep him well polished, but keep his concerts consistently sold out. And it is no wonder as to why. Just a quick glance at his fabulous career, which boasts hits such as “The Luckiest,” “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me (ft Regina Spektor),” and “Rock This Bitch,” shows a man that is full steam ahead. Recently we caught up with Ben to talk about legacy, his upcoming tour with Cake, and church chicken dinners.

GSLM: You are carrying the mantle of legendary piano men like Billy Joel and Elton John. What is it like leaving a legacy for future generations in this regard? What do you hope to leave for future generations.

Ben: I keep following my interest, and balancing that between classic song writing and doing work with orchestras. That is one of the things that rock music got so good at, that in a way hit a cult factor. It can be applied to the symphony orchestra. There are a lot of ways that it can benefit from all of the research that has been done in pop music. The 70’s classic song writing is not what is in right now. And I don’t mean throw the baby out with the bath water, it is just not where people’s heads are at.

I openend up for Billy Joel recently, and he plays whenever he feels like it for 50,000 people. And it is al ages. It is almost like you couldn’t do that music with a straight face now, if it were new. The fact that it has already been done, and people have grown up with it, keeps that alive.

I don’t know where I would have sat if I had come around 20 years earlier. It is possible that I could have ended up like the guy in Searching For Sugarman. He was up against Bob Dylan and people like that. And if you look at the charts that year, he is great, but he is up against the new old stock, and that’s tough. The same goes for me. Sometimes I think, “God I wish I had come out in that era, because I would have had a much bigger platform”, but then other times I think, “This is kind of my era.”

GSLM: Would you say that you are introverted or extroverted? How does this mesh with your performance?

Ben: Probably a little of both. I have to turn on some extrovert just to get on the stage, but I think introspection is a big part of writing songs. It is probably a distance for most songwriters who find themselves break neck back and forth between being some sort of Dick Clark guy and then on other days being close to withdrawn. I do something like this and I turn on the, ‘Hey!’ and do a lot of talking, but I shut the fuck up and don’t really get out and talk to people. I am shy normally.

GSLM: A lot of performers are like that. You learn to turn on with practice. Like, “Alright, it is time to perform. Let’s go do this.”

Ben: All people, on some levels, are trying to relate, communicate, and be social. I don’t think that introverted is a quality that anyone cherishes. Plenty of times people who are painfully shy get called an asshole. When you are really shy, that’s not nice. You want to explain. So much of what I get offered to do is to represent and explain. I turn down a whole lot of that, because there is only so much Dick Clarking that I can do without feeling like a complete jackass.

GSLM: The paper airplane tour was innovative and so original. You have quite the catalogue and one might imagine that rehearsing for this would be tough. How do you prepare to undertake this? Was there ever a point in which you didn’t know a song that was requested?

Ben: (Laughing) Oh yeah! The time that you have to put into the obscure stuff takes away from the stuff that you know you will be asked for. There are only two types out there. There are people who are throwing the request of the favorites, and that is most of what happens. But then you’ve got people who are like, “I’m going to outsmart this jackass.” And they are throwing all of this stuff out there that comes off of the internet that I learned 20 years ago. It required a lot of homework.

GSLM: But that is neat. Even if it comes to, ‘I don’t know this,’ there is still a connection.

Ben: You are so right. They do give you a break. If it is something really obscure and I manage to get one verse and a chorus, that is good enough. I’d rather be able to do the whole thing… Sometimes I have made up the rest of it. I think that is something that is underrated in a performance. Comedians understand it better than musicians. What is happening on stage needs to feel unrepeatable for the audience so that we all have an experience together.

GSLM: Do you remember your first time on stage?

Ben: (I started) writing songs at a really young age. The adults would notice that and encourage me. They hired me to do a gig at a church chicken dinner. It was probably my first professional gig. I was in fifth grade and played for about a half an hour, all songs that I had written. They kept asking me to play quieter and I finally got upset and left when they asked me to play “Happy Birthday.” (In a southern accent) “I’m sorry, could you play just a little bit quieter? Yeah, just a little bit. That’s really good. You’re doing a good job.” And then later, “It’s Brenda’s birthday. Could you play “Happy Birthday?” I was like, “Fuck this”, and I left.

GSLM: (Laughing) What a first taste of what it is all going to be like.

Ben: This is something that I try to tell kids all of the time. Whatever you are experiencing, that is what it is going to be like. That show isn’t any different from a show that I did a few nights ago. You get a bump in improvements in some ways, but your disappointments are a lot bigger as well. You have to laugh at it and try to move on.

GSLM: You’ve got this tour with Cake. What are you most excited about? Are you going to play together?

Ben: I’m sure we will do something together. We are old buds. Just reflecting the other day, I think that I have known John McCrea and Vince DiFiore for twenty years. I am bringing a very interesting band. I’ve got Tall Heights, a Boston based duo. They are very interesting musicians. They are going to be my band along with a bass harmonica player for the low end. it is not going to be a normal arrangement for the band. I like to take a risk. And as far as what I am playing, I play stuff from all over my catalog.

Ben Folds and Cake are currently on tour together. The run will wrap up on August 25 in Indianapolis at Farm Bureau Insurance Lawn. Get your tickets here.

Ben Folds and Cake Tour