Van Morrison 'pretends to be someone else'
Van Morrison is an introvert and claimed
Van Morrison "pretends to be somebody else" on stage and all his emotion is "acted out".
The 80-year-old musician insisted he is naturally introverted and his public image is "absolutely nowhere" near who he really is because he feels he needs to hide his real self in order to put on the best possible show.
He told The Times newspaper: “Look up the word introvert and you’ll get me. I’m an introvert working in an extrovert world
“The person on stage, that’s a role I’m playing.”
“I’m splitting myself up into two. I couldn’t do the job as myself — I have to pretend to be somebody else.”
And asked if he's happiest on stage, he added: “No, no, no. Whatever emotion is happening up there — sadness, anger, joy — I’m acting it out.”
The Brown Eyed Girl singer has slowed down in recent months after suffering "burnout" due to his hectic touring schedule last year.
He said: “I got burnout. Sometimes you don’t know you have it until it’s extreme.
“Just fatigue. You can’t do anything. You just go, ‘I’ve had enough.’
"A lot of people my age can’t do what they used to do. When you’re 50 you think everything’s possible but then that changes. I don’t want to sit on long car journeys, long plane rides. I’ve been there, I’ve done that.” It
But despite his efforts to take things easier, the Van admitted he is always working on new music.
He said: “I do music all the time. I’m writing songs all the time and I have at least a hundred songs I’m compiling and cutting up into various album projects. But you can burn out at that too.”
In order to keep things fresh on stage, the veteran singer adopts jazz legend Louis Armstrong's approach, explaining he "never sang a song the same way twice".
He added: "That kind of stuck with me. That’s absolutely right. That’s how to keep it interesting, because I can’t keep singing the same songs the same way. It’s boring.”
Meanwhile, the Domino singer "doesn't understand" how Spotify boss Daniel Ek was able to persuade record companies to go along with his vision for streaming music.
He said: “I don’t understand why it was so easy for the guy to decide he was going to do this and then all the record companies went along with it. I know you need millions of streams to get anything.”
