Pop Quiz: Richard Ashcroft

Pop Quiz: Richard Ashcroft

Aidin Vaziri | Richard Ashcroft knows how to make a comeback. After taking off a few years to start a family, the former lead singer of the Verve (the British band best known for its 1997 hit "Bitter Sweet Symphony," which in its video saw the singer strutting down the street and knocking people out of the way) crashed Coldplay's set at Live8 in front of more than 3 billion people. Chris Martin introduced him as "the best singer in the world," and no one believes that more than Ashcroft himself. His confidence remains undiminished on his third solo album, "Keys to the World." Later this month he supports Coldplay on a series of East Coast dates.

Richard Ashcroft
Q: So that was pretty nice of Coldplay to give you a big chunk of its Live8 time slot.
A: There are many, many different ways you can see it. There are a lot of different levels. There are a lot of trade-offs and dimensions that you have to be aware of before you can see it purely on that level.
Q: How does it look from where you're standing?
A: Yeah, it is incredible. In cynical record company terms, they would have been hammering home their new hit single in front of 3 billion people, and they gave me that time. But also, they were going on after Paul McCartney and U2. Yeah. I think, in Chris' head "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is one of the tunes that stands with that other generation of people.
Q: If that's how you feel, why have you agreed to open Coldplay's shows in America?
A: Why am I opening for them?
Q: Yeah.
A: Quite the simple fact that I'm going to be playing to 30,000 people straight away. That's it. There's no deep thought about it. As far as how many people know my name in America, that would take me all year.