“I was pretty bad at being a pop star” AN AUDIENCE WITH BRUCE HORNSBY
“I’ve never been the vehicle for your stroll down memory lane”
SITTING in his hotel room in Denver, Bruce Hornsby is wryly pondering his current predicament. His latest album, Absolute Zero , has re-established him as a creative force – inspired by Don DeLillo and Steve Reich, it artfully combines the resonant, piano-led heartland rock of his 1980s heyday with spry neoclassical arrangements, jazz-funk and avant-garde flourishes, sometimes ending up not a million miles from the rousing, deconstructed anthems of his famous disciple Justin Vernon (who also guests on two tracks). Yet Hornsby is still being booked to play the kind of civic festivals where vintage rockers are expected to boost the profits of local breweries by smiling politely and playing the hits.
“Who knows what they’re gonna think when I start singing about cryogenics or IRS tax examiners as American heroes?” he laughs, of his upcoming engagement at the Dillon Amphitheatre. “But lucky for us, the uninitiated seem to be following
