Paul Westerberg soldiers through injured hand

Posted September 25th, 2007 by eric

Replacements legend Paul Westerberg is healing slowly after gouging his hand with a screwdriver while attempting to remove wax from a candle. It’s kind of a random way to mess up your hand but fitting for a man whose whole career has been on the unpredictable side. Westerberg recently appeared on The Craft , which Billboard fairly characterizes as a “a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chat-and-sing series a la VH1’s ‘Songwriters.'” Well, close enough- it’s actually called ‘Storytellers’, but whatever. Anyway, the reclusive Westerberg not only showed up but he was seemingly engaged in the interview, even performing a few songs with his damaged hand. Even after it completely heals, of which Westerberg is only “1/3 of the way”, he will only regain about 80% of its usage. Not good for guitar playing. But Westerberg has already relearned the guitar taking his injury into account, and he even pulled out a few Replacement classics like “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “Skyway.” The interview is full of random Replacements minutiae like the fact that “producer Jim Dickinson added overdubs, including strings, on Pleased To Meet Me that Westerberg didn’t discover until he heard the album.” Definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re a ‘Mats fan.

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