The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ent...105281873.html
Ian Tyson says he wrote revealing new memoir because he needed the money
By: Nick Patch, The Canadian Press
Posted: 19/10/2010 2:04 PM TORONTO - When asked why he decided to write his first memoir, Ian Tyson doesn't rhyme off any romantic notions about fulfilling a long-time dream of publishing his first book or finally letting fans hear his life story.
Nope, Tyson says, he simply did it for the money.
"They made me an offer, an offer of an advance, and that's why I agreed to do it," Tyson, 77, said during an interview in Toronto this week. "I agreed to do it for the money, 'cause I needed the money at the time.
"And that's the straight goods."
There's considerably more where that came from.
Yes, "The Long Trail" is a raw, stark and at times even unflattering, but consistently honest portrayal of the Victoria native.
Tyson writes about his infidelity, his sometimes-questionable parenting and the two bitter divorces he's endured. Also fair game: his drug arrest, his occasional bar brawls and his erstwhile distaste for other Canadian music icons.
"I can't see any point in writing bullshit," Tyson said matter-of-factly, though he conceded that he had modest expectations for the memoir.
"I can't imagine what anybody finds interesting in the book. ... (I've said), 'I don't know who the hell's going to want to read this thing.'"
Tyson is still perhaps best-known for being one-half of the well-loved 1960s folk duo Ian & Sylvia with ex-wife Sylvia Stricker (now Sylvia Tyson). Their melancholic hit "Four Strong Winds" remains a mainstay on lists of the best Canadian songs ever recorded.
But Tyson has divided most of his life between two passions largely unrelated to his folkie past: living the cowboy life on his Alberta ranch, and the country career that's followed his 1980s rebirth as a Western music traditionalist with sharp storytelling skills.
Yet while Tyson wasn't interested in sugar-coating the truth, he did concede that writing about his marital struggles was, at times, difficult.
He divorced from Sylvia Tyson in 1975 after pursuing a relationship with another woman, sometimes cavorting with his mistress openly in front of his son, Clay, who was a child at the time.
"I wasn't being very sensitive about the whole thing, that's for sure," Tyson writes.
He found a more enduring relationship in 1978 when he met a waitress named Twylla Dvorkin, who was only 17 at the time. Tyson, then in his mid-40s, knew that their relationship was inciting gossip among the locals, but he didn't care. They soon married and had a daughter, Adelita, who now lives in Texas.
But the couple eventually drifted apart, divorcing in 2008. His wounds still fresh, Tyson had a hard time probing the end of their relationship.
"Iwanted to be honest about it and fair, but it was a tough divorce and pretty acrimonious," he said. "Twylla hasn't got the book yet. We talked a little while back and she's quite anxious about it. She's probably concerned about what will be in it.
"But I'm hoping that she'll find it fair. I think we're past all that bitterness."
Similarly, Tyson says his once-icy relationships with Canadian music contemporaries have thawed over the years.
In the book, he writes that he was once bitter about Stompin' Tom Connors' popularity, that he felt the mainstream acceptance of Connors' work was "condescending and patronizing."
And he says he was also jealous of Gordon Lightfoot, whom Tyson felt didn't do enough to help those who gave him a boost along the way.
"We've all mellowed," Tyson says now. "We've all gotten old. Those things pass over time. They're competitive people, and I'm competitive, and I think, it was a little pie in those days. You couldn't all share in that same pie.
"And I was very much an outsider during that period here, and that was of my own making, 'cause if there was any fault in it, it would have been my fault."
Of course, the adventures of a music star-cowboy aren't all so dark. The book reiterates the long-held story that Tyson introduced Bob Dylan to marijuana.
"Idon't remember doing it, but (Dylan girlfriend) Suze Rotolo (says so)," he recalled with a smile. "(Rotolo) and Bob Dylan, they were together through that Greenwich Village period, so I guess she would know.
"Tom Russell, the songwriter, said: 'You turned on Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan turned on the Beatles. So that makes you the king.'"
Tyson has a reputation in the industry for being notoriously prickly, which he actually references several times in the book (though he prefers the adjective "irascible.")
He betrayed no signs of such irritability on this day, however, chatting warmly about the sometimes-uncomfortable details of his life.
Tyson is pleased with where he stands in his career. He was forced to change his singing style in recent years due to scarring on his vocal cords, but he says he's been told his newly gritty rasp lends his songs more hard-won relevance.
His last record was 2008's "Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories," but Tyson says he has more songs ready and plans to record soon.
"We're going to record 'em ourselves at the ranch and put 'em online," he said.
"I think we'll go with iTunes — whatever that is, I don't know. But I have people who do know what it is."
Though he long struggled to accept his folk legacy, he's at peace with it now. Over the summer, he decided he wanted to play the big folk festivals, even instructing his agent to take a reduced fee if necessary.
"I wasn't sure my music would be relevant to those people," he said. "Those young people, they don't know who I am, and the older people think I'm dead. So I knew I wouldn't be preaching to the choir.
"I was blown away at the reception we got. 'Cause I didn't do the old stuff. I had to do 'Four Strong Winds' because they'll throw me in jail at the end of the show if I didn't do that. But that's the only old song I did. I did all what I write now.
"And I was sure they wouldn't be familiar with those songs. So I was very, very pleased."
The end of Tyson's memoir finds the singer in a dark place, dealing with the dissolution of his second marriage and various minor medical ailments.
Asked for an update on how he's doing, Tyson is positive.
"Well, things are more even. They've evened out," he said. "Through the difficult times ... I handled it inside the music. The music really pulled me through, and my horses, but the horse thing, that's a more abstract kind of thing. The music really helped a lot. The music got stronger, you know.
"Hank Williams said a broken heart doesn't hurt your songwriting, and he was sure right about that."
Ian Tyson book - jealous of Lightfoot
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lol
not my opinions or thoughts)
