Three Stories About Leonard Cohen

…who has added a bunch of new tour dates.

1. My little brother works at a Tim Hortons in Ottawa, because Canadians, and one of his customers gave him two tickets to see Leonard Cohen, who he did not know from a hole in the ground. And he emailed my mom and I to say “do you know anyone in Ottawa who might want to see Leonard Cohen?” and we yelled at him and said, oh, my God, you idiot, go see Leonard Cohen.

So he got a little drunk and went to see Leonard Cohen alone, as one does, and it was a transformative emotional experience.

2. This one.

3. I cannot find the interview, but I remember him saying he didn’t really like to perform “Bird on the Wire,” the greatest song of all time, because people forget that songs are rooted in singers’ lives, sometimes, and when you say “I swear by this song / And all the things I’ve done wrong / I’ll make it all up to thee,” and it turns out you didn’t, you don’t necessarily want to go around proclaiming it for the rest of your life.

Maybe you should go?