"I don’t know what the ‘big time’ is"
- Tom Waits in 1988

As told to Chris Roberts (from http://Rocksbackpages.com)

Hear more from this rare interview: http://blankonblank.org/tom-waits

"He’s a natural raconteur. A great one. You just get out of the way and let him do his thing, perform. If you can nudge the jokes along, so much the better." - Chris Roberts on interviewing Tom Waits.

From this glorious interview (recorded on cassette tape) we decided to just dip inside the mind of Tom Waits. So he takes us to church, Stonehenge, the streets of New York and inside a Hawaiian nightmare. The interview was recorded in a London recording studio and you can hear muffled music throughout the conversation.

Get more on Tom Waits, his turn as an aniamated cartoon in the 1970s, paling around with Keith Richards and Charles Bukowski and GIFs from the episode:
http://blankonblank.org/tom-waits

Subscribe for new episodes every other Tuesday (it's free):
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=blankonblank

Executive Producer: David Gerlach
Animator: Patrick Smith
Audio Producer: Amy Drozdowska
Colorist: Jennifer Yoo

Music from Tom Waits
"Clap Hands"
"Hang Down Your Head"

Music You Heard via APM
"Keep My Heart" Deep Sounds
"Marinier" Anne-Maire Bernert
"Ten Men Dead" Deep Sounds
"Gypsy Twang" Paul Lenart, Bill Novick
https://search.apmmusic.com/

More Blank on Blank episodes: http://blankonblank.org/pbs

Hunter S. Thompson on Outlaws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3QoKqEHS8s

BB King on The Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tIphqWYu_s

Elliott Smith on Freaks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAP3sYaaBv4

Robin Williams on Masks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PHGmIAv4Dc

Wayne Coyne on Living with Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJXU7f0hI30

Maya Angelou on Con Men
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VybIJEA41yk

Bette Davis on The Sexes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNnTUyrxzWY

Michael Jackson on Godliness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoCa3Po7M_8

Jimi Hendrix on The Experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK2lfs_uiwk

Meryl Streep on Beauty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG_T5dwnJuM

Philip Seymour Hoffman on Happiness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osn8rjkPyYM

David Bowie on Stardust
http://youtu.be/lFIDXXDsxAo

Gene Wilder on The Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PUW2POEjX4

John Lennon on Love
http://youtu.be/DmvmnYEy9NY

Johnny Cash on The Gospel
http://youtu.be/ALGi0tcFCcw

Heath Ledger on Role Playing
http://youtu.be/qDRUzbAa6lI

Tupac on Life and Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x2FqX2YZws

Kurt Cobain on Identity
http://youtu.be/C1Z2BkZaOQc

Janis Joplin on Rejection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdF4b1_LQnQ