Soundtrack Of My Life: Josh Hartnett

9 August, 2024

Josh Hartnett

The first song I remember hearing

James Brown – ‘The Big Payback’

“So my dad’s a musician and he was in a lot of soul, funk and rock and roll bands. I remember him playing James Brown around our house in Saint Paul, Minnesota, when I was very young – and learning to dance to things like this song. He played with Al Green for a little bit. Those sort of bands were very present in my young life.”

What was it like to grow up in such a musical home?

“I’m the black sheep of the family because my two brothers and my sister are all musicians. I’m a great music appreciator but not much of a musician. I still play but terribly.”

The first album I bought

LL Cool J – ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’

“The first CD I bought is the most embarrassing one, so I think let’s go with that. I remember when CDs were new, because I’m old, and going to the shop and buying it and being like, ‘I can’t wait to put this on when I get home!’ I didn’t have a CD player in my bedroom so I had to listen to it in the living room. My parents were like, ‘OK, interesting…'”

The first gig I went to

“I went to a bunch of concerts of my father’s but not many that were outside of that because really he was so focused on his own work. It was mostly outdoor stuff that I would go to otherwise they would have been at night. But I remember really specifically listening to his band practice in our basement and being so young that we had one of those washing machines where the door would come downwards – and I remember jumping on that and breaking it in the middle of one of his practices. Right now his band is called The Misspent Youth.”

The song that reminds me of home

Prince – ‘Purple Rain’

“In the Twin Cities [Minneapolis-St Paul], Prince is a really big deal. When I think of home I automatically think of ‘Purple Rain’. I was a huge Batman fan when I was a kid and so that soundtrack was very much around. That whole era was really good.”

Did you ever meet Prince?

“A few times. It was in an era when he was pretty reclusive and there were stories written about him riding on the backs of his security team in nightclubs. But he was never like that in my experience. I had an ex-girlfriend who was a friend of his and we hung out at a club a couple of times. He was Prince so he wasn’t going to be incredibly normal and personable, but he was iconic. He was definitely peacocking a bit. I don’t think he turned off in the way that other artists do.”

The song I wish I’d written

Neil Young – ‘Harvest Moon’

“I think it’s one of the most soothing songs. If you knew you were passing away, it feels like the song you’d wanna die to. That whole album really speaks to me. I always think in terms of how an album is constructed and that album really makes me feel comforted.”

The song I can no longer listen to

Radiohead – ‘Everything In Its Right Place’

“There was a certain point in my life when I was pretty emo, and there’s some Radiohead stuff that I can’t listen to anymore because it was such a time and place for me. When I hear the first couple of songs on ‘Kid A’, I’m brought back to when I was about 21 and it came out… I was actually given an advance copy. I nerd out over that sort of stuff. Being able to hear it a week or two before everybody else was gold.”

The artist that always makes me dance

David Bowie

“I was able to get to know him pretty well when I lived in New York. He and his wife Iman were out at a lot of different functions. I remember a lot of political stuff that we would run into each other at. And then he read the script for a really small budget film called August [2008] that I was gonna do. He ended up playing the the bad guy who is only in it for a scene. We couldn’t believe it. He showed up on the day and he was very much ready. He was in character and ready to play the role. But then as soon as we finished, he was just the most gentle person.”

The song I do at karaoke

Louis Armstrong – ‘It’s A Wonderful World’

“I love jazz. Most of its instrumental but there is an early iteration of jazz that was very much vocal-driven. This is the one that I like to sing. Or Tom Waits. Something that has a character to it that’s so far removed from me. ‘Step Right Up’ or something.”

Both of those are quite gravelly…

“Exactly. You just gotta go for it.”

The artist that makes me cry

Nick Drake

“It’s amazing how much classic rock we’re talking about because my interests are all over the map. There are a few songs that make me cry by Nick Drake. One of them is just because I played one of them at my mum’s funeral. But I’d rather not say which.”