Tributes and Goodbyes: A Conversation with Ben Harper

“The arts are a wonderful way to keep people’s legacies alive,” Ben Harper tells me. He’s been doing a bit of that lately: he appears in the upcoming Jeff Buckley documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. And he mourns another artist who is no longer with us in his new song, “Before the Rain Dried.” It’s a tribute to Michael Ward, the guitarist in his band the Innocent Criminals, who passed away last year.

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Ward, a former member of School of Fish and the Wallflowers, was a close friend; he’d played with Ben for nearly two decades, but their relationship went back even further. “My first wife Joanna and his first wife Terrie were very close friends in 1993 and we went on a double date. Michael and I, it was love at first guitar ‘nerd out.’  We went to see numerous shows together, ranging from George Jones to Radiohead, and our friendship evolved from that moment on.”  

Harper was traveling in France when we hooked up via Zoom to talk about “Before The Rain Dried,” the album that he’s been working on for years (as he explains, he’s released some other albums in that time), the Jeff Buckley documentary that he appears in and what it’s like to open for Harry Styles.

Talk about paying tribute to Michael Ward in your new song. I know that this was a huge loss.

Sometimes the pain is beyond reach. I can’t reach it with art or emotion. “Before the Rain Dried,” it just happened, I felt like Michael Ward entered the room with me and the song produced itself in the style of music that Michael and I had written together in the past. I didn’t leave the home studio until it was done.

He’s a guy who knew how to work as part of a team; he’d been a member of two bands before joining the Innocent Criminals. That must have been helpful. 

Not only was it helpful, but he was always the best in the room at bridging gaps. Whether it be musical or personal, his dry wit and his sense of timing when it came to any moment that was a bit elevated emotionally. There is a lot to be said for the timing and cadence. His timing and cadence was second to none. When there was a clash of ideas, Michael would be the first one to make a joke.

Even though the song was inspired by him, the line “Home is the bag that I keep packed by the door” is probably something that most musicians can relate to. 

From the time that I set out from my family’s music store [the Folk Music Center Museum and Store] in Claremont, California, to considering myself an aspiring songwriter, in about 1993, to 2023, that’s about thirty years…. It took me all that time to earn the stripes to write that line. 

It took me a lot of miles to write that lyric. But the song poured out and I followed it until it was produced. That line speaks to road life to touring life, it speaks to the effects of road life on family and friends. 

I took last year off and it was a great year, and I wouldn’t change a thing. But it only exacerbated my hunger to get back on stage. But I think that, looking back, if there was one career adjustment I would make, at the top of the list would be more balance between home life and touring. 

So I know you are in the Jeff Buckley documentary. I didn’t realize that you guys were friends. 

We knew each other. “Friends” would be an overstatement. His friends and his community were very tight knit but I met Jeff on numerous occasions and always had great exchanges with him. 

We opened for Jeff at a festival in France. It’s in the film that Jeff and I right afterwards conspired to see Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on their No Quarter tour. It was an out of body experience for a number of reasons…but I can’t spoil the documentary for you. 

He died so tragically young and he’d only released one album (1994’s Grace). 

There are very few people that can do what he did. Jeff made his 20th record first. So did Lauryn Hill. 

Of course, Jeff would have gone on to make twenty records. I think he’s the most important artist of my class of my generation. I think it’s imperative that they induct him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame soon. 

Those of us who know, know. But I don’t know if he permeated culture enough for them. 

I presented Little Walter at his induction, and if they can take that principle and move it up about two decades, they’d be on to something. 

It takes them a long time to get to some artists. Soundgarden is just finally getting in this year. It’s long overdue. I would have thought that they would have been inducted the minute they were eligible. 

Rage Against the Machine too, I was glad they got in, and that should have happened the minute they were eligible. They could up their nominee count annually. But back to Jeff, I would say that Jeff would be my first choice. 

I’m from the New York area, I really regret that I never saw him perform. I’m trying to remember why I didn’t. 

That would be an interesting book—the shows you could have gone to, and didn’t. You could describe why you didn’t—and then you could describe the redemption. What you actually did see. 

The moral to the story is: Go see that show.

Words to live by: “Go see the show.” 

So tell me about your next record. “Before the Rain Dried” is totally solo: you play everything on the song. Is that what the next album will be like? 

So far it’s all been solo. I’ve been releasing a song a year for years, and I’ve released albums between these songs. I did (2022’s) Bloodline Maintenance and (2023’s) Wide Open Light, I released an instrumental record (2020’s Winter Is For Lovers). For this particular record I’ve been releasing one track at a time. I released “Uneven Days” (in 2019), “Don’t Let Me Disappear” (in 2020), and this song for Michael. I’m going to release five of the singles, and then I’m gonna release the entire album. 

Besides your solo work, you’ve done albums with blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite, and the band Fistful of Mercy (with Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison). Do you have plans to revisit either of those projects? 

Dhani, Joe and I can always do something. When that Fistful of Mercy album happened, we were all in L.A. with time on our hands and if there is another time like that that opens up, we’ve hinted at it and towards it. So we’ve cracked that window open. And Charlie and I kind of maintain an open invitation, kind of taunting, if not daring each other to get back in the studio together. I think it should be a trilogy [following their 2013 collaborations Get Up! and 2018’s No Mercy In This Land). 

Over the years, I’ve seen a number of your solo shows, but I’ve also seen you open for Pearl Jam, PJ Harvey and Luscious Jackson. In 2022, you opened fifteen shows in L.A. for Harry Styles. I was thinking of the term “understanding the assignment.” Is it a different assignment when you do your own show, compared to opening for such a huge artist? Or do you just say, “This is my show, hope you like it!” 

I do think about the context. I didn’t use to. But now when I open and do festivals, I do think about presentation. [For the Harry Styles shows], I felt I needed to bring it back to the beginning.  The majority of the songs that I played at those shows were songs that I wrote when I was Harry’s age. Actually younger!  I was 23 when I wrote [debut album 1994’s] Welcome To The Cruel World. I was curious to see how those songs would stand up to kids who are that age now. 

How did it go? 

I had the time of my life. Back then, when I played those songs in Europe, where people react to my songs in larger numbers and earlier, I would play “Waiting On An Angel,” and there would be 5,000 actual butane lighters. With that same song for Harry Styles’ audience, it was 30,000 cell phone flashlights, decades later. And I felt a great sense of accomplishment from that. 

And he’s an incredible human being and a wonderful person. He’s the best for having me on. I wasn’t an obvious choice. Not only did he feel strongly that it would work, but there was a song that I played on on his last album, I played guitar on a song called “Boyfriends,” that he was not doing in his set. We had a discussion and he decided that it would be ok if I did it in my set. It was quite well received. 

Ben Harper’s summer tour kicks off May 30 in Washington, D.C. 

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