Joan Baez finds new ways to protest: ‘I’m too (expletive) old to go to jail’

Joan Baez retired from touring in following one last round of dates on her aptly named Fare Thee Well trek Yet the longtime Bay Area singer-songwriter-guitarist who ranks as one of the the majority fundamental folk music artists of all time pretty much hasn t slowed down since Turning her focus toward other creative endeavors Baez put much effort into her ongoing series of Mischief Makers paintings documenting a wide range of subjects from Patti Smith and Jackson Browne to Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi who have fought to bring about social change She also disclosed her first book of poetry s When You See My Mother Ask Her to Dance and was the subject of the acclaimed documentary film Joan Baez I Am a Noise in And of curriculum a whole new generation of music lovers were introduced to Baez and her tempestuous relationship with Bob Dylan through last year s massively productive A Complete Unknown Monica Barbaro was nominated for a Oscar for supporting actress for her excellent portrayal of Baez in the Dylan biopic For her latest trick the -year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is joining the cast of the Vau de Vire Society for The Soiled Dove The circus-infused dinner-theater experience which draws from the talents of -plus circus performers dancers and other artists to journey viewers back to San Francisco s Barbary Coast in the s runs Fridays and Saturdays Sept -Nov at Radium Runway at Alameda Point For tickets visit www thesoileddove com Related Articles Joan Baez delivers poignant goodbye to Bay Area fans Joan Baez is a badass and she knows it Bay Area great Joan Baez featured on amazing new folk collection Last chance to see Joan Baez in concert in SF Bay Area Essential Bay Area vocal albums From Johnny Mathis to Jello Biafra I in the past few days had the chance to catch up with Baez who was calling in from her longtime home in Woodside Here s our conversation Q Hi Joan How s Woodside in the present day A Oh it s absolutely beautiful It pretends that there s nothing else going on but itself Q I m not sure if you remember but we ve spoke various times over the years The first time occurred way back in the summer of when you performing a benefit concert for the East Palo Alto-based Ecumenical Hunger Undertaking A And we re still kicking Q We were supposed to do an in-person interview that day on-site at Mitchell Park in Palo Alto But that Interview didn t truly end up happening But you did give me a hug A Well here s another one over the phone Q I appreciate it Well it s nice to talk with you again Hey I thought things were supposed to slow down in retirement But that certainly hasn t been the situation for you A I guess I came out of the womb on output And I m still there And it s hard keeping up with what to do right now for anybody Hence the circus Q Yes tell me how you got involved with this Vau de Vire Society production A The guy who worked with me at circus-dinner-theater company Teatro ZinZanni reported We re going to do this circus thing Are you interested And I explained yes Bingo And that was it And I didn t even know what I was getting into It was just an instinct thing I have this great quote hang on from Mark Twain And it is The human race only has one really effective weapon and that is laughter Isn t that nice Q That is very nice What can you tell me about this performance group the Vau de Vire Society A I don t know much about the company They are very young I mean the people who are going to be hanging from the ceilings and stuff are going to be in their s maximum And it s new to them For instance they were choosing a wig for me I m Paloma Blanca I m the the queen of the gypsies So I was looking for whatever the wig was going to be And they had this magnificent blonde thing with braids and curls And I just loved it Then I just realized This is made for a -year old And I m saying Well hang on a minute Then I realized they don t understand about aging I texted and declared Come up with something a little more subtle or age-appropriate So they unveiled this wonderful big glorious wig About the clothing they brought this fantastic wardrobe these fantastic skirts that weigh about pounds of material that you twirl in I realized that I couldn t walk in that and hold up pounds with one hand You know So anyway we re working on all those changes Pauses And I don t know what your question is Q Laughs That s OK I have a new one and it s way more major So wait you re not going to be hanging from the ceiling from the top of the tent A I m sorry to tell you no Q Is this straight acting or will we get to hear your serenading voice in the production A You get to hear my humming voice a couple of times We ve taken advantage of it Two real songs And then a lot of nonsense which comes with the script Q Nonsense can be fun A It s a lot of fun The other thing was before I reported yes to the project I disclosed Do I get to dance And he commented yeah Because dancing is so critical to me and I ve never really gotten to it onstage I ve been too I don t know we ve just never lightened up to that point And there was nobody to dance with So I stated I will dance my gypsy stuff and then give me a real dancer who can lead because I don t know what I m doing That s the only thing I follow in dancing Everything else I m leading Q Sounds fun and exciting And different A And irreverent And bawdy All of this stuff that I m involved in has to be off-color and challenging I think anything that the current quote administration would hate I want to be involved in And they hate it because they are all a bunch of pervs But there they are and here we are Q Do you think your irreverent and off-color side gets enough credit I mean do people know about that side of you A Not at all This will be a real eye opener for a lot of people There s this great guy who was in a union on the East Coast and he disclosed that I ve got the voice of an angel and the mouth of a dockworker And I was so pleased with such a compliment But no the populace doesn t know that Q Oh my goodness That would be a great name for an album Voice of an Angel Mouth of a Dockworker And it could be like you chanting in your prettiest voice all these rough songs filled with four-letter words and all that A That sounds like a really good idea Because that s presumably all I have left in me as far as recording goes Q There you go I expect to be mentioned in the credits when that album comes out A Good You can be arrested with me Q I d stand by you Joan No question about it A If I were you I d stand about feet away Then you d be safe Q But then again safety has never been your primary concern though right A I ll tell you being slightly more serious it is not what it was in the s and s When I went to jail for that brief period we were still showing pleasure to the policemen and vocalizing on the way into the paddy wagon And things have changed I mean I hesitate to tell a young person to get out there and demonstrate And it was never in my project to hesitate but to encourage people to speak up And now it s a serious question of how far you want to go with that how far you suggest it to somebody else At the circus they have a gallery and I am going to put my paintings The Mischief Makers on display there I just try to find everything I can do at this point And until they catch up with me I ll go on doing it It s also in the poetry I ve been writing I don t want to self-censor At the same time I m too expletive old to go to jail At my age you ve got your medication You ve got this that and the other In the old days you d get your medication your lawyer your friendly visits I m assuming that that s not what is happening currently Q Who would you still like to paint for your Mischief Makers portrait series A Bruce Springsteen I started But other stuff got in the way and I couldn t go at the usual speed I have a bunch of entertainer types paintings that I m going to show at the gallery at the circus I demanded Bruce to be among them but I couldn t quite get it done Q Could I commission a Joan Baez portrait of myself A Depends on what you look like Laughs Depends on how long it would take me And the answer is yes you could Q How much would that cost me A Depends on how big it is Isn t that weird It s the size of the painting that they go by Q Well there you go I didn t even know that it was an option to commission a Joan Baez portrait of myself A I didn t either But it is So if I do one the size of a postage stamp you ll be OK Q That might be all my music critic paycheck can handle I could take you to Palo Alto Creamery for a milkshake A That sounds perfect Except I m lactose intolerant so we ll have to do something else But you know a bunch of those places have fake ice cream So we can do that Q Sounds great That s where we ll hold our next interview Hey you ve clearly got all this other stuff going on but do you miss touring I mean it was such a big part of your life for so various decades A Yeah I didn t know whether I would miss it or not And I had to keep an open mind about it And I do not miss it I m surprised that I don t I miss my pals on the bus But I have no desire to go walk out on stage and do a concert When I got home you know the expression I hung up the guitar I literally hung it up on the wall And it s come down about four times I ve done guest appearances which I can still do But I in no way want to go back on tour Q I m curious to know how you thought Mill Valley s own Monica Barbaro did portraying you on the big screen in A Complete Unknown A I thought she was really good The humming voice is silly for someone to try and do that That might have been a good place for A I seriously But otherwise I thought she was wonderful She looked like me She looked dejected like me Literally I called the filmmakers and stated Does anybody want to hear from the horse s mouth And I got a call back from Barbaro and we had a good long chat And then from Ed Norton who portrayed Pete Seeger another good long chat Just trying to give them whatever they may not know I thought Pete Seeger was brilliantly depicted I thought Dylan was well-depicted just a little too clean Q So all in all two thumbs up for the movie A Yeah I say so My friends started defending me Well they didn t show this But it s a movie It s a good movie It s a fun movie Q I liked the movie too And I loved this conversation with you Thanks for being so generous with your time nowadays I look forward to possibly seeing you out at the circus and if so perhaps even collecting that hug in person A That sounds like a very good idea Thanks for the chat