Kurt Vile's Reading List

"Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock ’n’ Roll goes so deep, a list of obscure country people mixed with the greats. It starts in the 30s, 40s, 50s and goes up to, I don’t know, the 70s. It’s about how rock and roll really came out of country music."

"Unsung Heroes of Rock ’n’ Roll came out later and features people like Big Joe Turner and Amos Milburn, who wrote Down The Road A Piece which The Stones covered. Cecil Gant is a special favourite, he’s got a really crooner voice. Even people you’d never expect like Nat King Cole, you’d associate him with smooth music. This Nick Tosches, he’s smart and pretty crass at times – I can’t say enough how he’s such a great writer. I’ve read so many of his books from Dino about Dean Martin to The Nick..."

"Waylon Jennings’s autobiography was written with Lenny Kaye, who’s obviously a legendary musician with Patti Smith but he’s a writer as well and I didn’t know that until recently, because I live under a rock sometimes – even though I own the Nuggets compilation ( Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 ). Lenny Kaye curated that, so that’s pretty amazing. This is Waylon’s story in his own words through the filter of Lenny Kaye. What an amazing dude. He’s one of m..."

"I’m going for the godmother, Kim Gordon’s book, Girl in a Band. I think that’s a very cool and unique book for Kim to write about her life. Her growing up in the 50s and in the art world, that’s my favourite part. I know Kim and it’s interesting to get a deep insight of when I didn’t know her."

"My wife got it for me for Christmas. It goes from the beginning until the 2000s, and it’s inspiring to read the many faces and voices of Bob Dylan trying to bedazzle and confuse or sometimes be completely revealing, even if he’s going to pretend he wasn’t, you know? All those kind of things."