Part 2 of my interview with actor Kelly AuCoin, having previously talked at length about his acting career and the intricacies of the TV & film industries.

http://www.absolutemusicchat.com/music-qa-sessions/qa-with-actor-kelly-aucoin-billions-the-americans-the-blacklist-house-of-cards-part-1/

We now get to explore which song is forever in his heart, whose music had the biggest impact and does he like to dance?

Kelly and I have enjoyed extensive musings about our shared tastes in music and he has opened me up to some musicians who have previously passed me by. It has been an absolute delight to talk with him.

Bb

PC: What was the first record that you remember caught your attention?

KA: The first single I ever bought was “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” by The Jacksons. I bought the 45.

PC: It would be a really cool one wouldn’t it?

KA: Ha! It was cool, yeah. I was maybe 9 or 10. We had recently moved to Washington D.C and one summer we drove back home in my family’s VW bus. My mom, my sister, my uncle, and I drove across the country together. We had the radio on constantly, and this one really cool sounding song kept coming on. I remember the first time I heard it because it had that great sching ba ba ba ba ba boom boom boom opening… that great base line, and that little sching sound, whatever that is. I remember thinking “who is this?” And then Michael sang his first line, and it was like, ‘Oh My God!This is the Jackson 5!’ They had recently changed their name to The Jacksons, and to me that just sounded cooler and older, a little more badass. And this new song was so unlike any of their other stuff that I knew. It came on like 3 or 4 times a day while we were driving and I was always, like: “Mom! Turn it up! TURN IT UP!”

So that was the first single I bought. And then, I suppose, slightly more embarrassingly, the second one was “When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman” by Dr Hook. Dr Hook had apparently decided he needed to drop ‘The Medicine Show’ and start a solo career. It wasn’t the coolest follow up purchase, I know. But it has the benefit of being obscure!

When I was growing up, Sundays were the one day we knew for sure that dad was going to be home. And pretty much every Sunday morning I would wake up and one of three albums would be playing in the living room; Harry Belafonte Live at Carnegie Hall; Frank Sinatra, A Man and His Music, and Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Sings Gershwin. It was almost always one of those three. And I loved that stuff. It still feels like home to me. In a way that’s your musical foundation, isn’t it? The music your parents play. Then it’s a matter of rebelling against it or embracing it or some combination of the two.

PC: Yes, I think as you get older you tend to kind of go back to the music your parents were playing. At the time, when you are younger, you think, ‘Oh God. What are they listening to?’ Lots of people have said this to me.

KA: Harry Belafonte has stayed with me for my whole life, in fact they all did, but he’s always been a particular favorite of mine. I got to see him in concert twice; he was great, just an amazing singer and performer, and, oh my God, what a great man he is. Music aside.

When I was in junior high I started listening to more music from outside the confines of the house, and I started developing my own taste. Friends were bringing in all this stuff to school that I’d never heard of, and they’d all play their cassettes on their boom boxes during recess. All across the playground there were all these little islands of kids, sitting around someone’s box, playing different stuff. Like little fiefdoms…

At the same time, every weekend my friend, Steve Twelker, and I would listen to Casey Kasem on The American Top 40 countdown and we’d track the movement of the songs. We would call each other ahead of time and try to guess what’s going to be number 1 or what’s going to drop, and we would place friendly bets. Then we’d call in the middle of the countdown and be like: ‘Oh I can’t believe this guy is in the top 10!’

I really didn’t buy albums early on, just singles.

Bruce Springsteen… I remember in gym class in junior high our teacher, Mr. Carew, was playing The River album. “Hungry Heart” came on and I was like: ‘Who. Is. This?’ It was one of the first times I felt like I discovered music that didn’t find from the radio or from my parents. That was big. It felt like my own. I still love Springsteen. Just saw him in concert, actually.

PC: Was it the River Tour you saw or the one before that?

KA: Yes, it was The River Tour, and it was really good. And it was the first time my wife Carolyn has seen him live. She’s liked him well enough. She had always liked “I’m On Fire,” and at Oberlin I introduced her to “Wild Bill’s Circus Story”, which she really liked. But, during the show she turned to me and said, ‘Okay, now I get it.”

PC: Yeah I have been to lots of concerts but when I recently saw Springsteen in Glasgow, he still just blew us all away. For me, sometimes concerts at Wembley Stadium (London) have the most amazing props, costume and set changes but Springsteen, he doesn’t do any of that, he doesn’t change his clothes, doesn’t change his props. He just sings, and he is full of energy.

KA: It is amazing what he does. And you know, with him, there were so many albums that dropped at very specific, important stages of my life. I kind of grew up with him.

PC: So who else have you liked on a par with Springsteen?

KA: Oh well, Prince! I was actually chuckling when you called me, because here we were, about to talk about music, and my ringtone is this little clip of “Housequake.” So when anyone calls me my phone shouts “Shut up already. Damn!”

I’d say there’s probably no other artist that meant more to me in my formative years, in high school, than Prince. There was just something subversive about him, like some forbidden thing he was hinting at, you know? Something slightly dangerous. It was irresistible. And, of course, the music is brilliant.

It seemed like there were two camps, the Prince camp and the Michael Jackson camp. It always sort of felt to me like the Stones vs Beatles debate our parents might’ve argued. I was never a huge Michael Jackson fan (but I recently saw a terrific documentary on him) but I knew he was obviously really talented, and plenty of people who know a lot more about music than I do say he was a genius. I get it and nothing against him, but his music never really sent me anywhere (“Shake Your Body” aside). Prince was always my guy.

PC: Yeah his records were good but they didn’t have an edge to them, Prince had an edge and his guitar skills were great.

KA: Absolutely. I love that clip of him playing the solo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – he just shreds it! I saw The Purple Rain Tour in D.C. Sheila E. opened for him; there was a guy she called up on stage who had been standing next to me about 20 minutes before. She brought him up on stage and her thing was, when she was singing her song, her bodyguard grabbed him from behind, grabbed his arms and sat him down in a chair and she just sort of writhed all over him and I was saying, ‘Damn it! That could have been meee!’ Haha. I sort of had a thing for Sheila E. I had determined that “The Belle of St Mark” was about me.

PC: You’ve had your moments since!

KA: Yeah, actually it was 1999 that tuned me on, but Purple Rain is awesome!

PC: I recently bought it remastered on vinyl and I have played it so many times already.

KA: There’s a great vinyl store closing in New York called ‘Other Music’.

PC: There are a lot closing down.

KA: Lots are, yeah. But apparently there are some opening up too; one of my cast mates was telling me about one which opened up in Queens. Apparently has a great selection. Vinyl lives, it’s just about location. The one closing is near Soho – when it first opened the rents were a lot cheaper than they are now – they could survive if they moved somewhere else, but I don’t think they have the desire to move.

PC: I’ve been buying some albums at various second-hand sales but some of the sound quality is pretty poor. I sometimes think, ‘What’s the point?’ But I can’t bring myself to throw them out.

KA: I usually think vinyl sounds a lot better than digital. And I love the feel of vinyl. I love how much you have to pay attention to your music. You’ve only got 20 minutes, half an hour maybe, and then you have to attend to it, you know?

PC: I think it’s better because if you have downloaded an album you tend to skip to your favourite tracks but you don’t have that option on vinyl – in the old days I’d know every single song on an album but even I am guilty of skipping tracks and you shouldn’t.

KA: Yeah I knew all the lyrics to “International Lover” because I listened to the whole thing, I could quote it.

PC: Yeah, you hear one line and you can literally sing the whole song.

KA: I love that song. It’s just this wonderful goofy-sexy track. The whole album (1999) is just brilliant.

PC: I think a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon when Prince died; everybody was all about him again.

KA: It’s probably partly because of the way he controlled his music, that a lot of younger people didn’t really understand how great he was, you know?

I came to other artists later than I should have. My wife has always been a gigantic Bowie fan. I liked him, but I had some history with him. My first girlfriend in college was a Bowie fanatic, and after she broke up with me, and for a long time afterwards I kind of equated him with ‘bad break up’. When I started dating the lovely woman who eventually became my wife, and I learned that she was also a Bowie fan – I chose to ignore that red flag and thank God I did! Turned out she was awesome and so was Bowie! Win-win! Years later she took me to his 50th anniversary concert in Madison Square Garden. Great show. Bob Dylan was another artist I came to later. I’d always appreciated him but when he came out with Time Out of Mind I became obsessed. What a great album! Then my interest grew and I listened to more of his back catalogue and the bootlegs. My buddy, Dave – who’s an obsessive – he probably contributed to my Dylan-awakening.

PC: I’m not sure what his voice is like live nowadays, I’ve spoken to a few people who said his voice, like a lot of older artists, is not what it once was, but I’d still like to see him.

KA: There’s a great podcast called ‘Sound Opinions’ where these two guys talk about all kinds of music. My favourite episodes are the “Classic Album Dissections.” They had great episodes after Bowie, Prince, and Lou Reed passed, and recently they’ve had two Bob Dylan 75th anniversary episodes. Just really good stuff.

Another favorite on my list is Tom Waits. He’s incredible. And he’s such a showman. So wonderfully weird and ‘Other’. A terrific actor, too. As a performer, at times, he’s almost verging into performance art. I love that crazy, weird, bastard, haha. Mule Variations is a fantastic album. Rain Dogs… So much terrific stuff to choose from. Closing Time is great, one of my absolute favourites; there are four or five songs on there that I absolutely f-ing love, that I’m happy to listen to any time.

PC: Tell me one of them?

KA: “I Hope I Don’t Fall in Love”, “Martha”, ”Old 55” and “Virginia Avenue.”

PC: I don’t think I’ve heard any of them, I mean maybe I have but I don’t know them by their title.

KA: Then there’s “Franks Wild Years”, “The Heart of Saturday Night”.

PC: I do like that one and “Hold On”.

KA: “Hold On” is great – from Mule Variations – and “Chocolate Jesus!” and “Big in Japan!” It’s just a great album. Waits will often put in a monologue of some sort in the middle of an album, and Mule Variations has this great creepy one called “What’s he building in there?” – a wonderful, weird meditation on suspicion, fantasy, and paranoia – and it’s really funny. Just great, twisted stuff.

PC: So when you said you liked his acting: in what particularly?

KA: Down By Law a Jim Jarmusch film, starring Roberto Benigni, John Lurie, and Waits.

Heart Attack and Vine, that’s another great album – that might be the first one of his I bought, actually.

Also growing up in DC in the ‘80s there was a thriving punk scene, and even though I wasn’t particularly into the scene, the music was everywhere and influenced all our tastes at the time. Grey Matter was one of the best bands of that era.

Weird segue from punk, but I’ve always loved “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John because it reminds me of my wife, who isn’t exactly tiny, but she is smaller than me, and she is, in fact, a dancer.

But there were two songs that kind of captured how I felt at the time, along with Layla. One was Kate Bush’s “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”: I think (somewhat embarrassingly) that was how I sort of romantically saw myself, haha… and a young woman I had a crush on told me that “Man With The Child In His Eyes” reminded her of me, so…I mean, come on! The other was Roy Orbison’s “You Got It.” I know it’s not the most revolutionary song in the world – it’s just a sweet pop song – but for some reason it just seemed to capture that feeling of being in love with everyone and everything at that moment in my life. It was on the jukebox at the Oberlin Inn (the other bar in town that we frequented) I’d play it at least once every time I was there, and sing along. I remember being somewhat pleased when I was told after I left, that every time it came on people called it ‘Kelly’s song’.

But it’s kind of hard to beat ”Heroes” at top volume.

PC: Getting back to concerts: have you seen anyone live lately?

KA: I saw a band called Mother Feather. Newer and so good. They’ve got this kind of twisted, glam rock persona. The two lead women are ferocious. Just a great band. Everyone should check out their videos.

I recently saw the terrific band, Gangstagrass, this bluegrass/rap hybrid that wrote and sang the title song to the TV show Justified. Great music, and it was a great concert. I actually posted a couple of videos on my Facebook page.

PC: I will definitely listen to them. I loved Justified. I love Walton Goggins.

PC: Whose is the best concert you have ever, ever seen?

KA: I saw Patti Smith open for Neil Young that was pretty great, but that wouldn’t be the best I’ve ever seen.

Haha, You know one of the first pop concerts I ever went to? Barry Manilow. With my dad and my older sister. She and I were maybe… we weren’t even 10 yet. My memory is a little fuzzy but I remember it was, in my pre-teen expertise, a great show; It blew my 7 or 8 year old mind! My tastes have changed since then. Can I give a shout out to another artist I really like, who is grossly underappreciated? Singer songwriter David Dondero: he is a true troubadour, in the Woody Guthrie vein. His latest album, a couple of years ago now, This Guitar has some great, great stuff on it. I’ve seen him a bunch of times at some of the small music venues near my apartment. I highly recommend him, he’s sort of… if you’re a Bright Eyes fan or an M.Ward type of person (which I am) you’d really dig Dondero.

I can’t choose a best concert. The Bowie concert was great, the Purple Rain show was great. Although, in retrospect, I remember thinking the Prince concert was fantastic but was a little staid – a little over-choreographed. I’ve heard that later Prince concert’s had a looseness to them, to the music: that they were more spontaneous. This show didn’t quite have that although it was still brilliant. But oftentimes I’ve been more blown away by these random, smaller shows where you can have the thrill of discovery and the feeling of camaraderie that you can’t get at larger shows – it’s just a different kind of energy. There’s a great book that talks about this: “Your Band Sucks” by Jon Fine; it’s a memoir about this indie punk band, Bitch Magnet, that achieved some notoriety in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Fine writes a lot about those types of shows, and how the overwhelming need to perform outweighs the knowledge that they will never be rock stars. It just doesn’t f-ing matter. They still play. You can feel that energy in smaller shows. That creates the possibility of magic.

PC: Yeah I’ve been to a few small gigs this year: Kris Kristofferson, Turin Brakes and Maverick Sabre – the more intimate ones have been really good.

KA: Yes, but then to flip that a little, one of the best concerts, and one that I wasn’t at, but saw footage of, was Prince’s Super Bowl half-time show! I know that sounds weird, but given the situation, given what that was, the enormity of the stage, the ridiculousness of the half time show as a thing in general… the fact that he completely dominated that audience, the fact that he kicked such ass. There were millions and millions of people in a giant stadium and he created a super-sexy, intimate show, in the pouring rain! Who could’ve done that but Prince??

PC: Certain songs you just have to absolutely play at full volume: which song must you crank up?

KA: “Wake up” by Arcade Fire, “Heroes” by Bowie (my all time favourite Bowie song), “Layla” another one of my favourites (particularly around college and for the next 5 years, or so.) I think I mentioned that I drove across the country 5 or 6 times, in my VW bus, listening to tons of music. “Layla” was a staple in my tape deck, and it was always at full blast. I cranked that sucker up to 11. Right after college (Oberlin), I was constantly driving back and forth from there to Washington DC, where my family lived. Carolyn and I had just started dating and I was, honestly, having a hard time leaving college behind. I loved my time at Oberlin. It was always bittersweet when I’d pull into town. And the first time I did that, the first time I came back, “Layla” was blaring out of my bus as I entered town. That amazing, romantic, anthemic piano was blasting and I was back at this place I loved for the first time since graduation – at this place I loved – and the song ended just after I pulled up at the Tap House, the local bar where I knew all my old friends (who hadn’t graduated) would be. For that night, it was the greatest song ever recorded. Most other nights it holds its own, too.

“Dry The Rain” by Beta Band might be the greatest ‘play it loud ‘ song of all time. It would be a crime to listen to “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane at anything less than full volume. Grace Slick Hollering out “FEED YOUR HEEEEEEEAD!” needs to be heard!

At the very end of college, I was sort of strangely happy. I loved Oberlin, and there was this huge group of some of the most amazing people I, still, have ever met. I was sort of in love with everybody. I’m sure the amazing spring weather and the overwhelming pre-emptive nostalgia brought on by being just about to leave for the real world had something to do with it.

PC: That’s my favourite Bowie song too.

KA: When we were at that concert at MSG, my wife found one of those walkways, that they always keep clear nowadays, but she sweet talked the guards or something because she just danced down there, by herself – the whole night – having her own Bowie-experience. I was dancing around up at our seats, but when that song came on, she ran back up and danced with me because she knew how much I loved it.

That song actually got me through a couple of minorly traumatic times. Back at school when … this is sort of cinematic and weird… when the Bowie fanatic woman broke up with me, I ended up spending a couple of nights outside wandering around until all hours, generally feeling sorry for myself. The college radio station (which I worked at as a DJ during my freshman and senior years) was playing music out the window at the top of the main building on the quad, so, on one of my wanderings I called up and asked them to play “Heroes,” and I was so depressed and, you know, it’s a time of heartache.

PC: Yeah teenage angst…

KA: Oh yeah! But to be depressed about a woman! It was so romantic! And then, a couple of minutes later, they played it! They played “Heroes” out the window in the middle of the night over the basically empty quad, And I was wallowing in my sorrow, and it was amazing! I knew, somewhere down deep, that I was actually happy in that moment, but of course I was still majorly depressed. But that was part of the joy it, you know? The joy of youth, of music, of falling in love, of thinking it’s love! It’s all so visceral and chaotic and irrational. What is better than music to guide you through that?

PC: When you are called upon in a TV scene where you have to cry, just transport yourself back to that moment, feeling sorry for yourself, and your tears will flow easily.

KA: That was one element of that song, and then years later it became a much more joyous, us-against-the-world-type of thing

PC: Yeah I know what you mean without you even saying it.

KA: Yeah, the fact that at the end, the lyric changes from “just for one day “ to “forever and ever.” It’s actually true, it still gives you that hope. That desperate hope… I love that song. And then there are others…

There is a bunch of stuff off ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ that I have to play loud. I literally can’t play “She’s The One” at anything other than 11. “National Anthem” by Radiohead cannot be played below 11 either.

PC: Yes I know, we could go on and on couldn’t we, because there are so many. For me the ultimate song for me to play loud is Rock n Roll by Led Zeppelin, you just put that on and it’s like ohh.

KA: Hard to listen to Zeppelin on low volume. You have to crank them up.

PC: Yeah and a bit of AC/DC.

KA: Thunderstruck has to be loud, absolutely!

PC: Are you one to get up on the dance floor? Do you have a signature dance move? Does your dancer wife appreciate your moves?

KA: My dancing has changed over the years, as I’ve got older and my knees have failed me, but I have always loved dancing.

PC: That’s good because most guys are like: ‘No I don’t dance’ or ‘only if I’m drunk.’

KA: My wife has told me that one of the things she appreciated about me early on was that I could keep up with her on the dance floor and that I didn’t try to keep her from dancing with whomever she pleased. At Oberlin – early on, when I was first poking around, showing interest in her – people called her the ‘Queen of The Sco’ (place where everyone danced was called the Dionysus but for some reason they called it the ‘Disco’ and shortened it to The Sco) so everyone was telling me: ‘Man, she is Queen of The Sco, so, you know, you got to bring your A-game.’ I tried my best.

PC: Did you already have an A-game or did you have to quickly develop one?

KA: I will admit I was a good dancer back in the day, but as I can’t really move down into the bent knee position so well anymore without hurting my knees. I tend to, while I’m grooving along, sort of act shit out. I always did this to a certain extent, but I do it more now, out of necessity. My wife usually finds it amusing. But I do tend to get pretty… ‘involved’. There was one wedding we went to where people didn’t know me that well and she was like: ‘Okay, tone it down a little…’ But yeah, I love that – it’s fun.

PC: Well that’s refreshing to hear.

PC: So this year I began Classical Piano lessons: do you play an instrument?

KA: I doodle around on the guitar. I can only play three-fingered chords. I’m not by any stretch what you would call ‘good’.

PC: Can you read music?

KA: Nope.

PC: Would you like to be able to master an instrument?

KA: I inherited my grandfather’s mandolin. He was wonderful and I should really learn to play it. I learned one song on it when I was doing Julius Caesar, on Broadway. William (Bill) Sadler (a wonderful actor) was playing Caesar, my uncle (I was Octavius). Bill’s a terrific musician, you should really get him on here to talk about music: I’m just babbling nonsense; Bill knows his shit!

PC: Oh funnily enough, I am going to be interviewing him.

KA: Oh great! He’s a wonderful musician; there is some footage of him playing on YouTube. He found out I had a mandolin that I didn’t play and told me to bring it to the theatre. He took it home one weekend and cleaned it up, polished it, and found out some information about the maker. It’s a Martin, and I now know what year it was made, how many were produced that year, the approximate value of the instrument… and then he taught me to play “I saw the light.”

PC: That’s so cool.

KA: Yeah, and I should have kept it up, but I did not.

PC: But it’s always something you can go back to when you’re having a quiet moment.

PC: Talking about music in TV series – and all of the series you are in have some great music – if one of the creators said for example: ‘Ah Kelly, which song would you like to place in an episode?’ Would you have a song you have always wanted to have recognised?

KA: I’ve always appreciated that the songs on The Americans are the ones I grew up with. As I told you, on the pilot episode they used an extended version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” and they have used “Under Pressure” this year and they ended with a brilliant Leonard Cohen song “Who By Fire”. I’d love to do a scene to “Fade Into You” but I’d also like to get one of David Dondero’s songs dropped into a show: “Rothko Chapel” and “South of the South” are really visually evocative for me.

PC: Can you tell me which three styles of music or three pieces you’re drawn too?

KA: I always have a hard time picking genres, but I will tell you the artists I might put into a Pandora feed for example: I like M.Ward (I love that stuff) and Calexico and Iron & Wine – they would be the feed artists I would put in. I have a Serge Gainsbourg station that I kind of adore. I’ve got a Miles Davis station, and a Solo Cello station. But, I have to admit I’m kind of off Pandora: I’ve heard from many of my musician friends that they neither advocate for musicians nor do they compensate them fairly; artists who had been able to make a living can no longer do so. I’m looking for a streaming outlet that I can feel confident is treating artists well – that’s my soapbox.

I think Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis might be the most perfect album ever made. I can never get enough of it. When I’m needing to un-frazzle, whether it’s on the subway or wherever, I put on the headphones and play Kind Of Blue. I’ve probably heard that album more than any other.

It’s hard to pick just three, you know.

PC: It really depends on what your mood is, what your feels are on a particular day, doesn’t it?

KA: Yeah. Brian Eno had a period where he was creating this really atmospheric, quiet, minimalistic music that I often listen to: to relax or meditate. That kind of thing is really important in New York, where everything is so jangly and aggressive. Thursday Afternoon was the name of one of the albums and Ambient 1: Music for Airports – don’t know how he came up with that title.

PC: Yeah, if I saw that title on a playlist I would probably skip that one.

KA: Right? I’d have assumed it was some variation of elevator music, as we used to call it: do people still use that term? Neroli is another Eno album of that kind of stuff.

PC: You just answered my next question which was: which album soothes your troubled mind or heart or in your case what you meditate to?

KA: Yeah Kind Of Blue would definitely be up there. Of course it depends on my mood, and it’s changing over the years. It used to be really helpful to sort of double down on the sadness, you know: revel in the sad stuff to help speed along the catharsis.

PC: You get to your lowest point then build yourself back up.

KA: Yeah, I think a lot of times I’d find that cool sort of jazz very soothing, very helpful when I’m down. I usually pick music that fits my mood, you know. I come home after a show, its dark out, I have this image, and I want to listen to Sketches of Spain (Miles Davis) and pour myself a whisky.

PC: Which song would you like to be played at your own funeral?

KA: My thinking off the top of my head was “Heroes” but I think I’d want to leave that up to the people left behind. If my wife was left behind, I would like her to choose something that reminded her of me, reminded her of us. For me ”Heroes” kind of does that. We have been together for nearly 25 years, so that captures (in a somewhat adolescent way I suppose) that feeling the song conjures up: us against the world; that desperate longing. It feels, in a way, like growing up, and she and I definitely grew up together. We are very different people from who we were back then. We have both grown and have changed, and yet we’ve been lucky enough to do so together. That feels incredibly romantic to me – and somewhat unlikely. So I guess I’d pick that song, and she’d know why. I don’t know if anyone else would understand, but she would.

PC: And maybe some Joan Armatrading?

KA: Carolyn really introduced me to Joan Armatrading. Yeah, maybe “Love and Affection”. I could see that at my funeral. That song figured prominently in our early years. I’m not a huge Joan fan, but she has a few really amazing songs: “Love & Affection,” Down to Zero,” that’s some great stuff.

PC: How would you describe your perfect day?

KA: I would be with my wife, we would at the beach, and it would be 80 degrees, not a hint of humidity, sitting on a porch with both of us reading a newspaper or a book, with no Wi-Fi or cell reception anywhere. That would be my perfect day.

PC: And for dinner?

KA: We would have seafood, since we would be near the ocean, cold beer – and the sound of the ocean.

PC: I cannot possibly live without….

KA: My wife. She is my absolute best friend.

If you missed Part 1 of my interview with Kelly AuCoin, you can find that here.

Thank you very much Kelly for your time, patience, and for sharing with us something which is a big part of your life.

Disclaimer:

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Any opinions or views expressed within the interview are the subject’s own and publication does not imply endorsement of any such opinions or views by Absolute Music Chat or its personnel.