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Hawksley Workman Appreciates Morrissey's Fat Stomach

Friday March 07, 2008 @ 05:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

At the ripe old age of 33, Hawksley Workman is beginning to feel just a little over the hill for popular music.

"I don't want to sound old, but when the voice of American pop music is coming out of teenaged mouths, I can't help but feel very... separate from that," he says. "I think the other thing, too, everybody says that everybody made their best record when they were 24, you know what I mean? There's this sense that you're past your prime. I don't like that. That sucks."

But while it's unlikely that Canada's favourite cabaret pop stylist will ever compete with the Hannah Montanas or even the Justin Timberlakes of the world, Workman has hope for the future thanks to the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen.

"Bruce is in his fifties, Neil's in his sixties and Cohen's in his seventies," Workman elaborates. "And I was like, 'These guys are still poignant, they're still sexy, they're still cool, they still are hip.'

"And this, for me, speaks... not because I think like an 80 year old, but it speaks to me because when pop culture is parading around the 16 year old of the moment on TV — and this is who I'm competing against, this is who I share airtime with in my business — and I think I don't have a hope. I'll never be that beautiful anymore and I'll never be all these things anymore. I'll never look as vital when the camera's rolling in front of a fancy car, or whatever. But it's nice to feel like there's relevance in moving forward."

The singer also finds comfort in watching rock stars grow older. Far from being horrified that they no longer look like their 20-something selves, he revels in the growth of a waistline and a shrinking hairline.

"Rock 'n' roll has always been a youth industry, but it's been fractured and reassembled in a more saccharine way now than it ever was, I think — which is too bad. I like seeing people age. I'm really starting to enjoy it. I like seeing Morrissey with a gut and, when he takes his shirt off, his gut's hanging out. And I'm like, 'Yeah, all right. Morrissey's got a gut!' This feels good to me. Peter Murphy's losing his hair. That feels good to me. Robert Smith is twice the size he used to be. I like all this. It feels like the permission to be human."