At least, that is my take on him, but this night he was, as Lowell George would say, willing. Van Morrison can be nervous or shy, stage fright maybe, and he masks it with anger. I knew this would be the greatest Van Morrison concert I would ever see. We owe a great debt of culture to all musicians, but especially to Van Morrison. An entire artery was derived from a couple Van Morrison songs that continues to feed the great poets of rock & roll. People like Bruce Springsteen, and Adam Duritz. Van was the source of so many disciples who became sources themselves. The man who inspired all the other boys to write about boogie-woogie boys playing saxophone. Listen! Ireland was cheering for its own son.

I winked at an imaginary camera and whispered, “Thank you.” There were no stage lights, only the sun which was beginning its exit. I shyly approached the backstage guard: “I wonder if I might come in? I am Rickie Lee Jones.” He nodded as if he knew the name and said, “Well, let me ask.” A few minutes later I was welcomed into the festival and just in time to see Van Morrison.

In this exclusive excerpt from Jones’ new memoir, matters only grew more unpredictable as the day went on. She hopped in, only to realize the driver was “creepy,” and she wound up jumping out of the cab as he was about to plow into some festival goers. As she walked towards the festival grounds, “an old VW right out of 1969” mysteriously appeared, and the driver, who sported an especially thick Irish accent, offered her a ride. Little did Jones know how unusual the expedition would be. 'Silence of the Lambs': The Complete Buffalo Bill Story Singer Paulette McWilliams on Her Years With Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, and Steely Dan As she writes in her new memoir, Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour (Grove, April 6th), it was a “a trip I had been secretly planning since I was sixteen years old” - the year she’d discovered Morrison’s landmark album Astral Weeks. Then she heard that one of her heroes, Van Morrison, was performing at the Lisdoonvarna Festival in County Clare, Ireland, so she took a side trip before heading back to the States.

She relocated to Paris and was kicking drugs. In the summer of 1983, at age 28, Jones’ life appeared to be settling down. She was also in an on-again, off-again relationship with fellow songwriter Tom Waits and had begun using heroin. Her debut album, 1979’s Rickie Lee Jones, had transformed her into America’s leading boho pop star, thanks to its hit “Chuck E.’s in Love.” She’d made the cover of Rolling Stone, and her followup record, 1981’s Pirates, was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of that year.

By 1983, Rickie Lee Jones had had her share of surreal experiences.

Rickie lee jones magazine