Patti Smith Talks with Malcolm Gladwell About Her Life as an Artist

Bro­ken Record–the pod­cast host­ed by Rick Rubin, Mal­colm Glad­well, and Bruce Headlam–has released its lat­est episode fea­tur­ing an in-depth inter­view with Pat­ti Smith. Here, Glad­well talks with Smith “about her writ­ing in the stu­dio Jimi Hen­drix built, Elec­tric Lady,” where “she met Hen­drix in 1970—just weeks before he passed away. Pat­ti also talks about hang­ing out with and writ­ing lyrics for Janis Joplin, and she recalls the fun she had dur­ing a failed attempt to cov­er Adele in con­cert.” The con­ver­sa­tion also nat­u­ral­ly cov­ers her time with Robert Map­plethor­pe in the Chelsea Hotel (see vin­tage footage here); her rela­tion­ship with William Bur­roughs and Allen Gins­berg; and the chal­lenges she faced writ­ing Just Kids.

Stream the inter­view above, or find their pod­cast on Apple, Spo­ti­fy and Stitch­er. Also be sure to check out Pat­ti Smith’s dai­ly mus­ings on Sub­stack.

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Relat­ed Con­tent

Vin­tage Footage Shows a Young, Unknown Pat­ti Smith & Robert Map­plethor­pe Liv­ing at the Famed Chelsea Hotel (1970)

New York’s Famous Chelsea Hotel and Its Cre­ative Res­i­dents Revis­it­ed in a 1981 Doc­u­men­tary

Pat­ti Smith & Fred “Son­ic” Smith Per­form a Stripped-Down, Beau­ti­ful Ver­sion of “Peo­ple Have the Pow­er”

Pat­ti Smith and David Lynch Talk About the Source of Their Ideas & Cre­ative Inspi­ra­tion

Pat­ti Smith’s List of Favorite Books: From Rim­baud to Susan Son­tag

Pat­ti Smith Sings “Peo­ple Have the Pow­er” with a Choir of 250 Fel­low Singers

Hear Pat­ti Smith’s First Poet­ry Read­ing, Accom­pa­nied by Her Long­time Gui­tarist Lenny Kaye (St. Mark’s Church, 1971)