Ryan Adams: behind closed doors, one of music's most idiosyncratic heartbreakers gets intimate with his paramour, actress Parker Posey, opening up about finding his voice and getting his rock on

PARKER POSEY: So, your new album, Rock N Roll [Lost Highway Records], is out. This is your rock "n" roll album, right?

RYAN ADAMS: Uh, no.

PP: Why are you being argumentative?

RA: [laughs] I'm not being argumentative.

PP: Whatever. So, tell me a little bit about how you prepared for the album.

RA: It only took two weeks to make, but I swear to God, I've been preparing to make it for five or six years. My first record, Heartbreaker [2000], was a studied folk-traditionalist record in a lot of ways, even though the things I was singing about were instinctive; and with the next one, Gold [2001], I wanted to make a classic-rock record like the ones they used to play on CBS-FM [a classic-rock radio station in New York City], but only if every cool classic-rock song that came on CBS-FM happened to be written and performed by me. [laughs] But Rock N Roll is unadulterated--it's the way I play guitar live. It's the exact sound I always use when I make the demonstration recordings for my records. The other albums are concept records a little bit, but I wasn't trying to reference anything here.

PP: Well, I think this one is a concept album too. It's a natural progression for you as a songwriter--this is the album where the language is all coming together.

RA: That's what Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera say when they make new records. They go, "This record is like my old record, but definitely more me." Then you go, "Yeah, but you didn't write any of the songs on your record." [both laugh] They go, "I took more time picking these songs out" or "1 interviewed songwriters a lot longer this time before I chose which songs to cover on my record."

PP: Yeah. But you're the real deal.

RA: Aw, baby, you're so sweet. Parker, this movie on TV right now--is this The Vampire Lovers [1970]?

PP: Yeah, that's right.

RA: The guy in this movie, Peter Cushing, played the admiral in Star Wars [1977]--he was Darth Vader's gal Friday. Should we talk about my Star Wars fascination?

PP: It's a big influence for you, isn't it? I once did a gymnastics routine to the music from Return of the Jedi [1983].

RA: Sometimes you're so cute I want to punch myself in the mouth. But Star Wars is a huge escape for me. I like the idea of there being interplanetary troubles, and I really like the spaceships. Carrie Fisher was also superbabedout. Another funny thing about it is that all the evil people are English. It's strange--do they come from planet England?

PP: Well, American audiences sometimes think that people who talk in that English accent are really smart.

RA: And more sophisticated.

PP: Yeah, exactly. You've got to help me figure out this universal remote control. [fumbling with remote]

RA: I'll fix it for you--it's really easy. You don't know how to do anything technological. I think you think it makes you more indie. It's really the indie thing to be technology-challenged. I choose to be a bad guitar player because it gives me cred. [laughs] Of course, I'm being sarcastic. Do you think sarcasm is a defense mechanism, or do you think some people are just jerks?

PP: Growing up, there was a lot of sarcasm in my house. Was there in yours?

RA: Yeah, but it was more antagonism than sarcasm. I'm from North Carolina, so sarcasm is a little too informed for my people. They're just reactionary people, really, and accidentally funny. Definitely eccentric.

PP: IS there anyone who's morose or maudlin in your family?

RA: Me. [laughs]

PP: Well, you're very consumed with yourself.

RA: As are you. Is that why we get along so well?

PP: Probably.

RA: Wonder twin powers activate ... Shape of: ice wall! Form of: tongues out! [Posey laughs] Actually, I used to go days without talking to anyone. I'd go to the Metropolitan Museum, and I'd have to give the cabbie directions, but that's still very insular because you're not really thinking that much about communicating. But I'd go in and just get lost looking at the modern stuff or the Egyptian stuff and spend the whole afternoon there; then I'd go have dinner by myself, come home, watch TV till 2 or 3 A.M., wake up again in the morning, go to a diner by myself and read the paper--the same stuff I do now.

PP: Well, you're really dynamic, you know.

RA: I don't like that about myself.

PP: Really? Why not?

RA: I don't know. I think that for being social creatures, you and I maintain a pretty unsocial life; we just spend time together. It's like you and me versus the world, but we communicate all these crazy, good ideas. My life is so complete with one person, but I think the other stuff was a little bit more enjoyable when I was a little bit less of a person.

PP: Is it fun for you to have an image that you can play with, or to be provocative?

RA: I don't think I'm very provocative at all.

PP: That's so provocative. [both laugh]

RA: I'm a humble, shy sort of person.

PP: You have never eaten humble pie in your life! I know that you look at all your websites to see what people are saying about you.