Patti Smith Asks Fans to Keep Their Cell Phones Off

Posted on Apr 22nd 2010 2:45PM by Jolie Lash
Comments

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Patti Smith has a polite request next time you see her in concert: put away the mobile devices.

"A lot of people spend a lot of time taping, taking pictures, talking on the phone and sometimes, for me as a performer, I'd like us all to be more engaged in the moment," she told Spinner at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards on Wednesday night. "Usually that happens along the line."

As anyone who has attended one of Smith's shows knows, it feels like the iconic artist is singing just for you. As it turns out, she is. "My number one job is to communicate and whether there's 20 people or 20,000 people, I try to get a sense of each person as an individual and of the collective energy," she said. "It's not necessarily to be perfect or to please every minute, but to feel that we're all living in the moment. We're just an old-fashioned rock 'n' roll band and it's a collective exchange. It's like alchemy."

ASCAP, the performing rights organization, presented Smith with its prestigious Founders Award, which honors songwriters for their enduring and pioneering contribution to music. Past honorees include Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell.

While she was feted by ASCAP for her songwriting prowess, she has been making the promotional rounds for her role as the author of the bestseller 'Just Kids,' a memoir of her time with her best friend, the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, during the '60s and '70s. The book's success has been a surprise to her, she admitted to Spinner.

"I know a lot of people love Robert and would be interested in Robert, but I just, truthfully, didn't think it out that far. The main thing on my mind [was] that [the book should] be good, but I hadn't really anticipated how it would be received. I was just hoping that people would like it and they really do."

Writing the book was difficult for Smith because of the feelings it brought up. "I struggled with it for so long because of the subject matter," she said. "I think the idea of writing about loss, especially after having more loss, made it more difficult. Sometimes writing it made me miss him so much I couldn't take writing it after a while."

After receiving her award, Smith and her band treated the evening's attendees a blistering four-song set that included 'Because the Night,' 'People Have the Power' and 'Gloria.'

'Just Kids' is available from HarperCollins.