Goin' Nuclear

So Ryan Adams was on NPR this evening, and he didn't come off like an asshole! Good! Maybe he's taking himself less seriously, or more seriously, as the case may be.

A couple of surprises from the interview, which BTW, I thought was fairly well done: 1) He mentioned the Stanley Brothers as songwriters that he needs to learn from, and 2) That the woman he wrote "Nuclear" for passed away while he and she were dating.

I find it interesting that he brought up the Stanley Brothers, a classic mountain music/bluegrass band, as some of his role-model songwriters. It's not that I don't like the Stanley Brothers' writing, in fact it's the opposite, I love their music! However, you don't hear many would-be rock musicians looking up to eighty-year-old men (well, "man", Dr. Ralph Stanley's brother died years ago). It's refreshing, and gives me hope that Ryan will mature. I assure you, from the little I know of Ralph Stanley, that he would very much disapprove of Ryan's antics (scroll down to mid page), but it's hopeful.

Secondly, the interview revolved around the song Nuclear, which everyone is going nuts about, and to be honest, isn't even in the top three best songs off his new album, Demolition. (Although I'm liking it better now since this interview.) Anyway, I had no idea from the lyrics that it was about a friend of his, a girlfriend actually, who had died. He said the song is "about the first second I met her, six foot one with wild hair." He said her mother had a show when he was growing up, and I assumed he meant on television. He refused to say who his girlfriend was, but to "use our imagination." He said she "got the cancer... we were dating, and she got the cancer and died."

Who the hell was it? I'm sorry; I took the bait. Now I want to know.... Any clues?