The delicate genius

I have long been a fan of Ryan Adams, ex-lead singer of Whiskeytown-turned-self-absorbed solo act. "Gold" is one of the great rock albums of this decade, but lately Adams's ego has gotten in the way of his music. In 2002 he famously went ballistic at a concertgoer who jokingly requested he play Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69." Since then he's thrown himself headlong into his music, damn the public reaction, and has turned out roughly three albums a week, each more dark and puzzling than the last (apart from this year's "Cold Roses," which was pretty good).

With "69," his third album this year, out this week, Adams shows the pressure is getting to him, as he absolutely rips into the L.A. Times' Richard Cromelin during an innocuous Q&A:

"I'm at my girlfriend's house now and we're just getting some food and I got Minnie Driver tonight in the studio and just finished [producing an album by] Willie [Nelson] and I am just about to lose my mind," he said by phone late last week. "Would you like to do this interview with me, is that what we're doing?"
He didn't even wait for the question.
"What do you want to ask me today? 'Ryan, why are you so prolific? You are purported to be a kind of a jerk. Your hair is very disheveled.' "
He quickly jumped to the new album.
"I am kind of quite sick of people going, 'If he would have just taken all three of these records and dumped them down to one album he would have a perfect double album.' It's like, 'Well you guys be my ... manager, then. I don't know, I like them all. I figure, you know, Mom makes too much meatloaf means we got leftovers. It doesn't mean that she did something wrong."
And what about that friendly advice that he take more time on an album? Is that something he'd consider?
"No, because this story's about me, and it's not about you. It's not about the listener; it's about me. It's like a book. If a book's moving too ... fast for you and it's too many words, put down the book and go pick up a book of the week from the Oprah club.
"You want to read a real book and, like, want to be involved in a real process, this is my process. I'm not going to change my story. People can come to my story when they want. But I'll ... make as many records as I want ... 'cause that's what I'm into.... I'm the best. No one else is going to work at this pace again for a long time with these results.... And everyone can get jealous in my lifetime, but later on they're just going to have to say, 'Damn, he was good, he worked hard.' "

Whoah. I'll say this for Ry-ry -- with that hair, after he kills himself, Johnny Depp is a shoo-in to play him in the movie. As long as it happens soon.