I was lucky enough to go to the Newport Folk Festival with Pete

him in front of all these folkies because they didn ’ t know a damned thing about it and they didn ’ t care . But I had heard that Phil and Don Everly were really close friends with Buddy , so I said to Phil , “ Did you know Buddy Holly ?” And I was just a kid , like 23 years old or something . But Phil was very kind to me , and said , “ Oh , yeah — we were good friends .” And I said , “ Well , what happened in the end ?” And it was a simple question that a kid

Seeger in 1969 — he brought some singers with him , and I was one of them . And it was an interesting weekend , because it was the weekend that they landed on the moon . And if you can imagine that — there were TV ’ s everywhere , tuned in , and people were writing songs about it . It was SO amazing . And there I was with all these other artists making their first appearance there , like Van Morrison and James Taylor . And The Everly Brothers were there , and in the back of my mind , I was always thinking about Buddy Holly — he was a constant presence in my life , but nobody ever knew , because I wouldn ’ t talk about

would ask . And Phil said , “ Well , Buddy wanted to fly on ahead of the ( Richie Valens and Big Bopper ) tour and do his laundry , thinking he ’ d get a day ahead to get everything straightened out and be fresh for the next show again .” And that statement suddenly made him a human being to me , instead of the cover of a record . And I started thinking really hard about Buddy at that point , so it was Phil Everly who first said that to me , and it did something inside — it dislodged some static thing that had been in my head and made it move , and this was right before I wrote “ American Pie .”

Don McLean , 1971

IE : A song that actually turns 50 next year . And when it first came out , it was almost a national pastime to analyze and parse all of its references , like the Jester — who was supposedly Dylan — and the King , possibly Elvis . DM : Yeah . But I never got into it , I never talked about it . In fact , I ’ ve spent my whole life not talking about talking about it . And it still is a fad — people are always asking me about it . But it ’ s a dream . And you . Know how one thing morphs into another in a dream , but it seems to make sense ? And suddenly one day , this whole front part came to me , and it was about the plane

crash of my man Buddy Holly . And then I figured out what to do with it and made this dream , and so therefore — even though I ’ m having fun with these images , and one is morphing into something else — I really can ’ t do justice to my work on that particular song .

IE : You released your first Playin ’ Favorites covers set back in 1973 , only four albums into your career . Kind of a daring move at the time , right ? DM : Yeah — that ’ s what it was . I got tired of being up against the writer thing all the time . I ’ m a singer first , and