ANNIE LENNOX: Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world. It's Annie Lennox here. And I'm just about to have a conversation with a very beloved friend of mine, who is an incredible, creative person. He's a singer, songwriter. And he's lived in Los Angeles for the last 19 years; he's just about to leave for good, and I'm very, very sad. But I'm also happy to have the conversation with him.
He is Scottish. So today's conversation is going to be incredibly Scottish, because whenever I speak to a Scottish person, I get really, really Scottish, which is a wonderful thing. He has worked with the likes of David Foster, Diane Warren, Glen Ballard, oh my God, so many, he's going to tell us how many people and who they are. He was on the series Glee, and he sang on 630 songs and more over a period of five years. And he is just a spectacular individual, and I'm really excited to introduce him to you. His name is Storm, here he goes.
CUT TO VIDEO OF STORM SINGING JAZZ..
STORM GARDNER JR: ..On everything thats light and gay, I’ll always think of you this way, I’ll find you in the morning sun, and when the night is new, I’ll be looking at the moon, but I’ll be seeing you…
STORM GARDNER JR:
We’re on. We’re live. We’re doing it.,
ANNIE LENNOX: We’re live.
STORM GARDNER JR: Yeah. Finally!
ANNIE LENNOX: Yeah. I’m so happy.
STORM GARDNER JR: Finally!
ANNIE LENNOX: This is so nice and so beautiful. Oh, God! And you've shaved your hair.
STORM GARDNER JR: I had a few COVID moments. You know those COVID haircut moments that we’ve all got…?
ANNIE LENNOX: Yeah, I do…
STORM GARDNER JR: Well, this is as a result of mine, but I like it actually, it’s you know, clean…
ANNIE LENNOX: I like the feeling. Does it feel like velvet?
STORM GARDNER JR: Oh, is great, especially back [inaudible 02:48] Why was it the back then? No, but is that, oh, it feels cracking. And then as it gets a wee bit longer, you're like, oh, I miss that. Wee bit at the back.
ANNIE LENNOX: Listen. When you leave LA and you go to Italy where you’re going, are you going to take your [inaudible 03:07]
STORM GARDNER JR: Yeah, I am.
ANNIE LENNOX: And do you do it by yourself?
STORM GARDNER JR: Massimo will do it sometimes, but I do like that feeling of, it's very cinematic. You're like, I'm just going to shave it, and you know, but I do it myself too. I mean…
ANNIE LENNOX: You have to say who Massimo is?
STORM GARDNER JR: Massimo is my darling fiancée, the love of my life…
ANNIE LENNOX: So tell me what's going to happen in September and where it's going to happen?
STORM GARDNER JR: Seriously, you want to talk about? Alright, we're having a real conversation [crosstalk 03:49]. Well, here's the thing. We’ve discovered, because of my Massimo Italian citizenship, we have to get a few documents translated into English, so the Scottish court. But we're going to get married in Edinburgh.
ANNIE LENNOX: And where in Edinburgh?
STORM GARDNER JR: Up at the castle.
ANNIE LENNOX: Yay!
STORM GARDNER JR: Obviously. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. At St. Margaret's chapel, it's the oldest chapel. Have you been into that wee chapel?
ANNIE LENNOX: No. No.
STORM GARDNER JR: So wee and tiny, wee magical, because St. Margaret, of course, was brought over, I think she was actually a queen of Denmark, and she was brought over to marry one of our kings. And he died, she ended up running the country and was doing cracking job, and so she ended up becoming of a patron saint of particularly Edinburgh to St. Margaret's loch down in Holyrood Park. St. Margaret is everywhere.
ANNIE LENNOX: Wow!
STORM GARDNER JR: I think, in Glasgow, who's the patron saint? Is it Saint Mungo or somebody?
ANNIE LENNOX: I know. I heard about Saint Mungo when I was a kid, so that history of Scotland. But I think what is so beautiful, Storm, is that you're going to get married in a chapel in Scotland to the love of your life, who is a Man. And, you know, we think back what, three decades, I don't know how many decades ago, not that long ago, let's say two, even two.
STORM GARDNER JR: Even two.
ANNIE LENNOX: That would not be possible, right, ever?
STORM GARDNER JR: Right.
ANNIE LENNOX: And I know your journey as a gay man I was a little boy, because we've talked about that. We've talked about what it was like. And talk about it a little bit about if you could sort of describe a little bit what it was like growing up as a little boy in Scotland, would you share some of that?
STORM GARDNER JR: Well, remember, I was telling you, I was as growing up as a little boy, but actually, because of a sort of a hormone thing that happened to me in which that I had a hernia, so they removed one of my testicles when I was very young. So I was actually more like a little girl and that is even worse than being a little boy.
ANNIE LENNOX: Well, but when you were small…?
STORM GARDNER JR: When I was running around the streets. You know, because my mum left, so obviously, it was just me, my brother, and my Dad. And my Dad was working 14 hours a day, so I was just left to my own devices. So running around with this long, sort of curly hair, and I was very effeminate. I used to love going into the museums and all the costume exhibits and finery that somehow I thought I've been totally duped somewhere. Like how, we see all the luxury, especially in Edinburgh, you see luxury, the Queen is arriving, and everybody's fancy, and then I'm going home to the tenement.
And also, we were in a Catholic in a part of Edinburgh which I didn't even know existed. So it was the Irish quarter. So if you stepped out of that, which I had to do to go to school, and get in Protestant, Scotland in the 70s. No, I was pretty regularly spat on all the time at the bus stop , waiting to go to school, and all that. And I just kept thinking, right, whatever it is I'm doing, people are spitting on me for it, so I've got to start to groom and change and grow, get out of here, and start to find a way where I could then have a place in my life where I was not being spat on, but also I wasn't spitting on myself because I think we spit on ourselves in our mind. Because you start to believe, whatever it is they're spitting on you for is wrong, right? And it's not wrong.
And so now, a few years ago, Massimo and I went back to Edinburgh, and we got to see the precession, the gay pride march, I couldn't believe it coming up the Royal Mile. About 10,000 people were marching and waving and I was greeting, Annie.
ANNIE LENNOX: Greeting means crying, crying everybody that's watching.
STORM GARDNER JR: I was greeting.
ANNIE LENNOX: Sometimes we are going to say some Scots things, because I was saying earlier on, it's funny, I was going to talk to you in your Scottish and [crosstalk 08:46] with you, especially as accent gets stronger. Then we use dialect and words that are there that I’ve forgotten and they come through. But what you've just said is so powerful to think that you're watching a gay procession. And we remember, both of us all the names, the horrible names that were attributed to homosexuals, fiery [crosstalk 09:16] horrible names, Poof.
STORM GARDNER JR: That was the worst one, poof, wee poof. And add on to the word, a really heavy Scottish accent, you wee poof. Is all really sort of like…
ANNIE LENNOX: Cruel.
STORM GARDNER JR: Oh, it's cruel. [inaudible 09:36]. It's draining. It's dark. And here am I in my little…
ANNIE LENNOX: But what is beautiful, what is really amazing as when… and so genuinely love about you is I know what you've been through. I haven't experienced your journey, but being Scottish myself, being brought up in a working class tenement area of Aberdeen, not Edinburgh, I also felt like an outsider. Now, I wasn't gay, that wasn't the issue. It was another issue. But we're both a little bit outsiders looking for a tribe, looking for something else.
And your journey, when you describe it to me and this one, is so painful. But it's so beautiful, because now in 2020, you are going to be married to the love of your life, who is Massimo, who is a beautiful man. And I just love that that's possible, you know. And you can do it with pride. You can do it with confidence. And even if there are still people who are AntiGay, you know, who are homophobic or however they feel, this is your destiny. You're allowed to stand tall after all this. It touches me deeply. There you go.
STORM GARDNER JR: It's not something I ever thought about Annie, I never grew up thinking I would ever get married. It was never even, obviously too, my mum and dad got divorced, and I just thought, it's not worth the hassle really. I'll just sort of be a bachelor and just, you know. And I didn't even know what that even meant: bachelor, gay, queer. I didn't know any of that. And another layer of it too, I know you experienced it too, lots of people do, is poverty. So not only are you sort of not manly or you're an outsider, but add on that you're really poor, and you're really stylish. You're trying to sort of be like all your pop stars and your heroes. So you're wearing shoes, that are either too big or the clothes are either rags, because I used to make, like you did too, we made our own clothes.
ANNIE LENNOX: It's secondhand. I love going to the thrift, like I'm sure…
STORM GARDNER JR: I know, we’ve don’t that…
ANNIE LENNOX: You and I have got this in common, so it’s like we got so many things in common. So I loved going to, when I was a teenager, there were a few little thrift stores that I knew that had fantastic clothes and you could get them for pennies at a time, so probably before decimalization, you know [inaudible 12:27] that means. Just if anybody doesn't know what that means, it means the currency changed from something old to something new, and it was quite [inaudible 12:35] at the time. Anyway, used to go to the thrift stores.
And what they had basically was old ladies that had passed away and their clothes were just donated to these thrift stores, and so you would have find gems, you would find beautiful 40s blouses, 30s dresses, amazing shoes, handbags, hats. I knew the places to go. But of course, now, if you go to a thrift store now, it's incredibly expensive... When I told my girls first, that I used to wear secondhand clothes, and it was fantastic, and it was like things that you bought for pennies, they were horrified. They just said you wore clothes the other people wore before? That's horrible! And now they're like yeah, vintage…
STORM GARDNER JR: Well, let me ask you. Now, you know we've got this very almost intuitive, every time I see you, what is it we're always in the same colours right now, we did not coordinate this? But look, blue, pink, and…
ANNIE LENNOX: And pink! Oh, glasses!
STORM GARDNER JR: So we're boy and girls, See, that's the beauty, isn't it? It's pink and blue. It's feminine and masculine together. That is what will make a good circuit, you know.
ANNIE LENNOX: Wouldn’t just, a good circuit. I love the way you described that…
STORM GARDNER JR: I have a very friend, a dear friend who I love. And another day, we were talking about something and I had something pink and she said oh, I'd love to get one of those for my son, maybe in blue. And I said why not pink? What if he wants pink? She said I never thought about that. I said it’s just a color, pink, boys need pink. Pink is love and it's light and it's fresh. Would you overlay that with your kids? Did you dress them according to? I thought you would.
ANNIE LENNOX: It's very interesting, because you know I have two daughters as you know, and so that's a hugely relevant part of my life. And dressing them, it was very interesting. When they were small, I used to love, absolutely love, I used to find little pinafore dresses, they liked it, little blouses, a little old with puff sleeves. They were so cute. They were so, so sweet. It's very interesting.
When you're a mother, and I don't know if all mothers feel this, but you realize, I realize right away, even from the first moment that my children were from me, but they were themselves. So when it came to dressing them, they resisted sometimes the things that I wanted them to wear, because they want their own thing, or they didn't want to wear. Honestly, we’d almost have fights to get them to school in the morning because they didn't wear uniform. So very independent, and very, very clear about what they wanted and what they didn't want.
And that's so interesting. Because as individuals, you watch your kids grow, and choose certain things, and sometimes you're like, oh my God, that's so wrong. But you have to step back and allow, I believe. This is from my course was to maybe put certain boundaries down if I could, but not be too heavy, so it's to make a kind of balance. And I mean, it would be so nice if we could talk with my kids now about how they feel about what dressing means to them, because they're both conscious and very conscious of their style.
STORM GARDNER JR: What is style, Annie?
ANNIE LENNOX: Oh! Oh! Well, it's different. I think style is personal. Right? I think it's individual. Oh, that's such an interesting question. So I used to love sitting in the cafe, just watching on the street people going by, and I would really look at the women particularly. Because like you've got this woman behind you, these legs is very, very stylish [crosstalk 17:15]. Right? Super stylish.
STORM GARDNER JR: They’re just walking past us. They're dancing…
ANNIE LENNOX: And amazing. I love it. And this same thing shows style in a way. And in France, I think, a lot of the women just have that certain French thing, it's that [inaudible 17:31]. It's something that I don't know what it is, but they put themselves together in such an elegant way. It's a mysterious thing. Like there's a lot of mystery in the world. We can't quite explain it. But tell me, what do you think is style? Because I think, you have a beautiful kind of sense of who you are and how you express yourself.
STORM GARDNER JR: Style, well, I think I had very extreme style growing up. Because like I said, I was like you going to all the secondhand shops in SallyAnne, Salvation Army, and all the shops, and I would find maybe an old military jacket, and it would be like a cracking. And I'm thinking, I got to have this jacket. I mean, and then I’ll do on it, but it would be red. You know those big red ones with military buttons And I would go to school in it… Now, I don't think anyone deserves to be spat on for wearing a red jacket. But I can sort of see where my style took root, Well, I think your style comes out of your roots, I think. it comes out of your root…
ANNIE LENNOX: Style is self-expression and people are obsessed with it. And it's become the core ethos of a massive corporate industry, global industry. And I resist that so much. I resist that notion that something is in and this is the latest thing. And of course, I'm 65 as you know, this is for younger people. But I always resisted being told by fashion magazines that you're supposed to look this way or that. I kind of had to find my own way. Do you know? Always.
STORM GARDNER JR: Well, it seems that the industry of fashion is just adding very unnecessary stress to the planet with regards to how much clothes end up just in landfill... Unlike you, if you find a pair of shoes that you like, stick with them, you know…
ANNIE LENNOX: Have them for years.
STORM GARDNER JR: Get them fixed. Don't buy new shoes. Yeah.
ANNIE LENNOX: Exactly. Exactly. So you're absolutely right, I mean, all the high street fashion, which is so cheap and affordable. If you look into the chain and you go right back to the core of it, there are women there that are working for slave labor really basically. And they're just there because they have no alternative and they're being exploited.
And you know that I founded an organization called The Circle, and yeah, we have a great interest in this called the Living Wage. If you must have heard of Livia Firth, who was, actually, I think they’re separated now, is divorced? She was married to Colin Firth. She's a member of The Circle. And she is passionate about, how could you say ecological fashion, you know, how the fashion industry is pretty toxic and exploit actually in the long, long chains. When you look into fashion, there's a lot of darkness in it actually, there’s a great need for change.
STORM GARDNER JR: I agree. Especially Fur I've got to mention that because, not even something I wore… You know, I was just trying to survive. But at some point, I just thought it just seems so cruel. I don't know how that's glamorous to be, unless, of course, you grapple this tiger to the ground yourself or something out for survival. But even then thats…
ANNIE LENNOX: I mean, that’s the thing about, everything right now, at this point in time, you know, everything is just on the precipice. So the survival of you talk about fur the creatures, we're talking about the great leopards, the tiger, they're truly endangered species. I mean, when we were kids, remember, I was taken to Edinburgh zoo. I mean, it's such a vivid memory. We traveled on the train to Edinburgh and got in and then we saw the penguins, and they were just so colorful and amazing and flamingos, and [crosstalk 22:28] was good. I never felt that zoos were good places for me. I never liked it, and I still don't like it. I know they've changed a lot and they take care of these creatures. But when you see a sad elephant that's kind of swaying with the chains around its feet, it's absolutely heartbreaking, you know. What we've done as humans on the planet to all these species is just utterly wrong. We think that we are above them all.
STORM GARDNER JR: No, it’s terrible, especially for sport I think are just weird, you know, just shaving down an elephant's tusk is going to add to your virility or something, it seems…
ANNIE LENNOX: The rhino is the one. The rhino. Or the poaching… I want to go back to you, because I want to talk about your journey from a wee boy in Edinburgh, a wee gay boy. How old were you when you managed to actually get? How was it made possible for you to leave and to go where you went, because you went to New York?
STORM GARDNER JR: Right? Well, I don't know, I've told you this before. But my auntie Anne, worked for the Queen in Buckingham Palace, right? And she had a meeting with my dad, she was up at Holyrood because the Queen was in Edinburgh. So she told my dad, you've got to let me take him to the palace because she wanted me to go into a life of service for the Queen, which was quite common. As you know, up in Scotland, a lot of the household servants, they were all Scottish because they were very discreet: they knew how to keep their mouth shut.
I overheard this conversation, I said there is no way I'm going to go work in palace. But there's only one Queen. No, I didn’t actually probably thought that. But I think at the time, I was I'm not going to be serving and that's another…
ANNIE LENNOX: Right. Right.
STORM GARDNER JR: And so, but there was a magazine called The Lady. You heard of this magazine?
ANNIE LENNOX: Yes.
STORM GARDNER JR: So I knew that in The Lady magazine, in the back that's classifieds, they had a lot of jobs for riding instructors, language tuition, and it was all on the continent. So actually, my first exit from Edinburgh is I actually went to Paris when I was 16, very young, and I got a job in a bar. They stole my passport and everything. They told me, you're going to have your own room. So your contract, you know, everything's fine. Great, got over [crosstalk 25:19]
ANNIE LENNOX: Amazing. You didn't speak French?
STORM GARDNER JR: I spoke a tiny bit of French. But the reason I got the job is they were building Euro Disney, and a lot of the guys were Scottish, and they couldn't understand anything they were saying. So they wanted actually somebody to speak Scottish to them, and a wee bit of French. But when I [inaudible 25:40], they showed me to the room, and it was a room and there were six wee cots lined up next to each other. I said, what's this, six beds? They go no, you're going to share this just for a few week. And there was four Algerian guys sleeping. I was like oh, this is almost a kidnapping some sort of film.
But anyway, and then I only lasted about three weeks than that, because I couldn't handle it. But I would go into, walk around Paris all day, sometimes wandering around all my day off and thought like this is just heaven. And then I thought but it's not different enough from Edinburgh, because I think Edinburgh is the most beautiful city in the world. And I was like, oh, it's not Edinburgh, it was more... So then I [crosstalk 26:28], so went back to Edinburgh and then I went to the travel agent, and I said, what's the cheapest flight to North America? And Montreal was, I think, £295 and New York was £292, so I went to New York. I just knew that if I can get out of here, I'll be fine, and maybe in America.
And of course, in America, when I landed in America, all the things I was picked on for, I was celebrated for in New York as an Artist in New York, they were showering me with glitter and feathers, I’m like oh, it's a dream, you know, but so that's how I got to New York. But I think it was just the music, Annie. I was always following the music. It was always about what's the rhythm? You know, you've got to find your life rhythm. And I knew at the time New York City, you know…
ANNIE LENNOX: But how old were you? That was like you’re probably 19?
STORM GARDNER JR: I was about 18, 19.
ANNIE LENNOX: So young. So it's really interesting. Because I always think about this, like we could be born in any city, any culture, any creed, any race, any situation. When I look at people, I always think that they could be me. Do you understand what I mean? I feel that commonality. But it's also so random. Like, I've got that sense that, well, I happen to be born in Scotland, and I am Scottish. But I could have been, I, whatever that is, could have been one else, and it could have been a completely different situation.
It amazes me the stories of people's lives, and how they transform from childhood into adulthood, and who they become their physical state, what they do in life, how they engage. And I look at film series at Netflix, and I'm drawn towards some of these series about people that have had the really tough lives and end up in prison. Right? And it's incredible to me how they manage to stay alive, how they survive. Their stories are so dark, and they've had terrible childhoods always. And always when a person is violent or abusive, they've been abused themselves, and the situation that they've been born in means that it's inevitable that they'll end up in a criminal life that will take them eventually into prison, which is unimaginable to me.
But you see, that's a kind of, is that a destiny? Because I always think well, if you've been imprisoned, how do you come out and engage with the other world that is not, let's see this criminality? You either go on the dark side and end up caught or you kind of manage to avoid that, but it's all about your destiny, I guess, it's so complicated.
STORM GARDNER JR: Well, I've got a question for you, because you obviously met and worked with Nelson Mandela, who spent a lot of time in prison, right?
ANNIE LENNOX: Yeah. But he went to prison. Yeah, but that's very, very interesting. He spent…
STORM GARDNER JR: When he got out of that, how did he mind managed to stay focused on?
ANNIE LENNOX: It's a good question, because Nelson Mandela went to prison for an ethical reason. And he was a black man living in an apartheid system that said, that races must be divided into black coloured and white. And the black and coloured races had to have these passes at all times. I mean, you could be put to prison if they found you walking without your pass.
So Mandela was a highly intelligent man, who was a lawyer. And it was a beautiful quote, like, when they finally took him to the island where the prison was, the prison guards said to him, you know, you’re here, no one else is ever going to see you again. This is kind of like the end of you. And he looked him in the eye, and he said, I am a lawyer, and when I get out of here, I'm going to kind of come back at you, don't worry about. And it was very interesting.
Because how did he survive 28 years in that prison? Because he had tremendous strength, tremendous vision, tremendous faith. He went very, very deep. And he actually was exemplary for the other prisoners. And there was a, how would you say, they believed that they would overcome the injustice of the apartheid system? And they did. They did. I mean, it's a long, long story. It's something because, yeah, it did influence me after meeting Mandela.
I don't believe in the cult of personality, like, there's a great personality. But having met several people that have lived in the hole, it's difficult, because human beings are a mixed bag. We have darkness, and we have light, and it's a struggle for us all. So I never sees anybody as a purely like, I don't have to have too much reverence.
But there are one or two people in the planet and Mandela, for me, is was exemplary. And he struggled. He was human being, but what he did for that purpose of breaking apartheid, which is a terrible sacrifice, but he came out of it like an incredible individual really.
STORM GARDNER JR: Let me ask you. It took me quite a few years to figure out what the cult of personality was. How would you describe that to people? Because that's something I'm happy to say like you, I don't have idols or icons or any of those things. I recognize the human thing and everyone.
ANNIE LENNOX: Yeah. Well, I think celebrity in a way, this cult of celebrity is a much bigger phenomenon. So cult of personality is kind of like about one person. But you have the cult of celebrity which goes through now, it translates into currency. It's incredibly sellable. And so you could be a celebrity for anything, just because you happen to be very extrovert, you happen to be very driven, and you want very much in a kind of narcissistic way to be elevated, and oh, my gosh, to make money actually as well. I think money is behind a lot of that cult of celebrity.
STORM GARDNER JR: Do you think that it's possible to be an artist and not be an extrovert? Because I tell my students often I say, yes, it is possible. It's totally possible…
ANNIE LENNOX: Yes, you can be both too.
STORM GARDNER JR: [crosstalk 34:42] presented in a way? But how do you feel about that?
ANNIE LENNOX: Yeah. Well, it's interesting. Because I know people that are watching, they don't know maybe what you've done. So would you mind just explaining a little bit when you say my students, just define that and then we’ll go into it?
STORM GARDNER JR: Yeah. I am a coach. I coach singers, actors, anyone who is trying to connect with their voice and their presentation. As we know quite often, how you think you are presenting and how you are presenting are sometimes two different things. And a lot of people maybe when they get a little bit nervous, they don't know how to speak properly. And so I just coach and I use really my own quite extensive career and a lot of mistakes and all the mistakes I've made. I thought I've got to share this. I've got to share it. I've got to share it.
ANNIE LENNOX: Yes. So your question, about being an extrovert. I think that you can be both extrovert and introverted. And I was listening to actually, Joan Armatrading, this beautiful interview with her. And she's just such a wonderful person and performer. And she's a very introverted person. And she said, when she gets on stage, the extrovert part comes through. And I identify with that, because actually, I am an introvert. And I can be extroverted in certain situations, the extrovert comes out, but mainly, I'm introverted.
STORM GARDNER JR: Right.
ANNIE LENNOX: Where do you think you lie, darling?
STORM GARDNER JR: No, is I'm probably more like you, I'm very introverted. But I have to force myself to be an extrovert, because I recognize no one's really going to be doing it for you. It's like, especially, and as a career…
ANNIE LENNOX: Performance. Yes…
STORM GARDNER JR: When you're younger, as in you don't have a manager or an agent or any of these things. You've got to be all of that. You've got to be the stylist, the photographer, the makeup, everything, and that can obviously appear that you really extrovert, but it's not. It's because more of necessity really. I think I'm an extrovert of necessity in certain times. But generally, I quite like to be in a very silent place actually.
ANNIE LENNOX: Yes, it’s probably interesting. It's interesting to sort of bring that out just to realize that you can do both things. And I remember as a kid, when I realized, oh, I can do this, you know, I can sing and it was so exciting, but nobody knew, no one knew, but me really…
STORM GARDNER JR: Well, you discovered it on your own?
ANNIE LENNOX: I discovered everything on my own, to be honest. It's been a very singular journey. I was my own coach. But I did have singing lessons. I mean, I did have teachers, and they were very formal, but I kind of created, like you, I had my own news and I followed it. Somehow, as you said earlier on the thing about music, I too had this connection to music. And somehow or another, if I look back now, there's a line that happened and it's very odd. Because actually, a lot of things were they happened, well, quite steep mysteriously or circumstantially, it became it happened, but it shouldn't have happened. There were so many reasons why it shouldn't, but it did. And then there were mistake and you learned, and then you were in another situation.
The journey, it’s so long when I look back on it, Storm, and obviously, we have that in common. Because you are a performer, you are a singer. You come from that background of, I mean, the poverty wasn't dire poverty. But nevertheless, it wasn't we weren't well off at all. It's just that we connect because we have experienced almost this parallel journey together. And I have to say, because I know we have to wrap up now. Because this thing called time…
STORM GARDNER JR: [crosstalk 39:22] started, you know, our conversations are usually, we're warming up now.
ANNIE LENNOX: We need a long, long series. I don't like that. It’s… But so…
STORM GARDNER JR: What is time? What is time? Because time for me…
ANNIE LENNOX: Is human invention really.
STORM GARDNER JR: I do think so. I do think so. I don’t think music left you or me. I think it’s going, you’re still going, you still follow that music. And ironically for me, you know where I'm headed after Italy? Back to Edinburgh. So I'm going really full circle because it's important to me I do go and share with younger people and older people, because you know, I do love singing with the seniors, how it's possible to have a positive of sunny outlook. And as I go in home, you know, and I go home and I help kids in western hills and [inaudible 40:21] and new house and help them with singing and film and show them a little beacon, which, by the way, you were for me when I was that wee boy. I don’t know how…
ANNIE LENNOX: Oh really! Because you’re a great deal younger than me. [inaudible 40:39] But I always we’re just…
STORM GARDNER JR: But I had a big brother, and my big brother would always turn me on to the best music.
ANNIE LENNOX: Well, there were a lot of Scott music. A lot of people came from Scotland that were, honestly…
STORM GARDNER JR: No. No. But you had something you were pushing things together. Back to style and then we'll wrap up. Another thing I think about style is when a person takes things that do not seem to work on paper, they put them together, and there's that little magic, because then they inhabit this thing, and it gives me a real beacon of hope. I know for all of us, I mean, Annie, you're so loved in Scotland. Annie, you anyway…
ANNIE LENNOX: Thank you. Well, I love you. And I'm really sad that you're leaving, but this is good, because we can actually Zoom when you get to Italy and we can just… And I just want you to be healthy and well, and you and Massimo to be happy in Italy, just be fantastic. You see, COVID-19 has come along, and it's kind of changed the world for all of us. I don't know that you would have left if it hadn't been for this situation. But it's another chapter, isn't it?
STORM GARDNER JR: It's another chapter. And forward as you know, always I never looked back. I just go let's say…
ANNIE LENNOX: But you're an inspiration to me. I've loved you from the minute I met you, and you're just the best, you really are.
STORM GARDNER JR: Thank you. There's no words, you know that.
ANNIE LENNOX: I know.
STORM GARDNER JR: Yeah. You can see it right here. Let me cry.
ANNIE LENNOX: Don't cry. Don't cry, darling.
STORM GARDNER JR: I love you so much. And I always will. And let's just…
ANNIE LENNOX: We’ll meet again. Don’t know where! Don’t know where!
STORM GARDNER JR: And I know we’ll meet again some sunny day…
ANNIE LENNOX: That’s what we’ll do. Love you…
STORM GARDNER JR: Love you always. Oh, I don't want to leave you now.