Interviews:
with Van Morrison

recent | 1990s | 1980s | 1970s | 1960s

2008 - BBC Radio 4
An audio interview which aired March 10, 2008.

2007 - official website
Interview by Barry McIlheney, who talks to Van about the Best Of Volume 3 album and recent collaborations. Also published in The Word magazine.

2006 - Billboard
Interview by Paul Sexton, from the March 18, 2006 issue of Billboard magazine.

2005 - Uncut
Interview by Jon Wilde, published July, 2005. An extensive interview covering much of Van's career, with special emphasis on Astral Weeks.

2005 - official website
Interview by Nigel Williamson, posted July 2005. An interesting reference to a future offering of unreleased material (i.e. a Philosophers Stone II) and the next album of new material.

2004 - Jazziz
Interview by Larry Blumenfeld, published April, 2004. Van sounding civil and forthcoming. Includes a nice list of cover versions which Van particularly likes.

2003 - Hot Press
Interview by Niall Stokes, published October 28, 2003. Van talking about What's Wrong With This Picture?, life after death, humor, and movies.

2003 - "official" interview
Interviewer unknown; part of promotional campaign for What's Wrong With This Picture?

2000 - Hot Press
Interview by Niall Stokes, published March 15, 2000. Interviewed for the RTE television series From A Whisper To A Scream, about the history of contemporary Irish music.

2000 - The Sunday World
Interview by Ivan Martin, January 2, 2000. Van talks about his early years, skiffle, and some plans for future musical collaborations.

1990s

1998 - The Irish Times
Interview by John Kelly, April 11, 1998. Van talks about east Belfast, hearing Leadbelly for the first time, his parents' record collection, and other sources of his music.

1998 - Radix
Apparently an issue of Radix [circa Mar 1998], a Christian magazine out of Berkeley, California, has a short 2 page, never before published 1995 interview with Van Morrison. The piece is titled "A Sense of Wonder: Steve Turner Talks to Van Morrison about His Spiritual Quest." Steve Turner is a poet. I don't think there'll be much new here for hard core Morrison fans, but if anyone's interested you can write them at Radix Magazine, P.O. Box 4307, Berkeley, CA 94704. $15 gets you a 4-issue subscription; single issues are $4.50

1997 - Music Central online
Interview by Edna Gundersen, sometime in 1997.

1997 - Q Magazine
Interview by Paul Du Noyer from the April 1997 edition of Q Magazine.

1997 - Télérama
Interview by Hugo Cassavetti. From the April 2, 1997 edition of the French magazine Télérama.

1997 - Entertainment Weekly
From issue #369, March 7, 1997. Caught between gigs in his homeland, Van Morrison makes clear he still has no use for the usual rock-star blarney. Herein, music's rough god talks about his hits and myths.

1996 - Mose Allison and "Tell Me Something"
Translation (from German) of an article on the new Van Morrison album Tell Me Something.

1996 - The Guardian
Interview conducted by BP Fallon, writer/photographer of "U2: Faraway So Close", and published in The Guardian on Saturday, June 15, 1996

1996 - Down Beat
An article on the album How Long Has This Been Going On, from the May 1996 issue of Down Beat magazine.

1995 - Polygram promotional CD
Interview by John Fordham. Talking about some of the songs on the How Long Has This Been Going On album.

1995 - Polygram promotional CD
Interview by Michelle Rocca. Talking about some of the songs on the Days Like This album.

1994 - Vox Magazine
Interview by Michelle Rocca. From the January 1995 edition of Vox Magazine

1993 - Q Magazine
Interview by Victoria Clarke. From the August 1993 edition of Q Magazine.

1991 - Now Dig This
Interview by Paul Lewis. From the December, 1991 issue of Now Dig This. Great in-depth interview about Van's early musical influences, by interviewers that Van clearly views as peers.

1990 - Rolling Stone
Interview by David Wild. From the August 1990 issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

1980s

1989 - New Musical Express
Interview conducted by Sean O'Hagan. From the June 3, 1989 issue of New Musical Express.

1989 - Q Magazine
Interview by Spike Milligan. From the August 1989 issue of Q Magazine (#35).

1987 - Musician Magazine
Excerpts from an interview with Van Morrison which appeared in the April 1987 issue of Musician Magazine (#102).

1986 - from "Memories Of R. D. Laing"
Van Morrison in conversation with R. D. Laing, at about the time of the release of No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. From a recently published book Memories Of R. D. Laing.

1986 - Boston Globe
Interview conducted by Steve Morse, from the July 7, 1986 issue of The Boston Globe.

1986 - Vinyl promotional album
Interview conducted by Mick Brown, from a vinyl promotional album, as part of the No Guru, No Method, No Teacher release.

1985 - Record Mag
Interview conducted by Anthony Decurtis, from the October, 1985 issue of Record Mag.

1985 - New Age
Interview conducted by Stephen Davis, from the August, 1985 issue of New Age.

1985 - Danish radio
Interview conducted by Al Jones. Originally aired in part on Danish radio in 1985, and later published in its entirety in Wavelength no. 29, July 2002. Al's recollections of the interview can also be read here.

1984 - from "Written In My Soul"
Excerpted from Bill Flanagan's book, Written In My Soul: rock's great songwriters talk about creating their music

1982 - Rolling Stone
Interview conducted by Michael Goldberg, from the February 18, 1982 issue of Rolling Stone.

1981 - BAM: The California Music Magazine
Interview with KMEL-FM disk jockey Paul Vincent. From the February 12, 1982 issue of BAM: The California Music Magazine (issue #123)

1970s

1979 - Melody Maker
Interview conducted by Chris Welch, from the February 3, 1979 issue of Melody Maker magazine.

1978 - Rolling Stone
Interview conducted by Jonathan Cott, from the November 30, 1978 issue of Rolling Stone.

1977 - Stage Life
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, one of Van's biographers. Van discusses the songs on his then-new album A Period Of Transition in one of the better Van interviews I've read.

1977 - Hot Press
Interview by Donal Corvin from around 1974, published July 7, 1977 in Hot Press - their third issue. Another excellent interview.

1977 - Rolling Stone
Interview conducted by Cameron Crowe, from the May 19, 1977 issue of Rolling Stone.

1974 - KSAN-FM Radio Interview
Interview conducted by Tom Donahue. Interview conducted circa July/August 1974, San Francisco, California

1973 - Talk About Pop
Interview conducted by Tony Johnson, from the November, 1973 taping of Talk About Pop, RTE Television, Dublin.

1972 - Rolling Stone
Interview conducted by John Grissim, Jr., from the June 22, 1972 issue of Rolling Stone.

1971 - Georgia Straight
Interview conducted by Rick McGrath, from the February 24, 1971 issue of The Georgia Straight.

1970 - Rolling Stone
Interview conducted by Happy Traum, from The Rolling Stone Interviews, 1967-1980, published by St. Martin's Press.

1970 - Jazz&Pop
Interview conducted by Danny Goldberg, from the December 1970 issue of Jazz&Pop magazine.

1960s

1969 - Interview fragment
Included at the end of a piece on "Astral Weeks"; from the March 1, 1969 issue of Rolling Stone.

1967 - Interview fragment
Taped sometime in March of 1967, at the Wassenaar Wildlife Breeding (zoo), Wassenaar, The Netherlands.

1965 - Interview fragment
Transcribed from a brief video clip from a Belfast, Northern Ireland, TV news report, aired in January of 1965.