Yes, I talked to legendary songstress Diane Warren last night. That’s Diane to the right, me in the upper left.
Even if you think you’re unfamiliar with Diane, you’ve heard at least one of her songs. Possibly dozens of them. She’s written for Eric Clapton, Roy Orbison, Lionel Richie, Celine Dion, Tom Jones, Olivia Newton-John, Aerosmith, Wyclef Jean, The Commodores, Diana Ross, Christina Aguilera, Michael McDonald, Whitney Houston, and Al Green… To name a few. She is a monstrously successful songwriter.
The thing I admire most about Diana is her work ethic. On average, she works maybe ten hours a day for a full seven days on each song. As she says in the interview, she’ll spend an entire day of work on just one or two lines. And she focuses on just one song for the entire week, or until it’s done.
Sorry I wasn’t able to let you know about the show beforehand, but the invitation was literally last-minute. HuffPost Live contacted me shortly before the segment aired and it was a mad scramble to get myself there.
Please note that the video clip below is NSFW. That is, it’s NOT safe for work. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll are all here in force. I appear near the end of the segment to ask Diane a few questions.
Be aware too that this interview is maybe 5% songwriting, 95% celebrity gossip. Sorry. I did what I could.
Congrats, dude! I like that she still uses a cassette recorder to work out songs. That definitely rules out a lot of potential distractions.
Yeah, I’m fascinated with that too. She really seems to focus on the lyric, melody, and chords and doesn’t let production creep into her songwriting process.
Wow, this is great. BTW, you’re good on camera: composed, clear, relaxed. Nice job!
Thanks Jeff. I did feel relaxed—that’s one advantage of filming from your own office. 🙂
It is always interesting to hear from someone behind the scenes! + nice questions, cool you could take to her (albeit for only a very short while).