Don Was on MC5’s final album: “The idea is to remind everybody that rock’n’roll isn’t meant to be tame”

nme.com:

Don Was has spoken to NME about working on the first MC5 album in 53 years and the sad loss of the band’s sole surviving member Wayne Kramer to cancer just months before its release.Kramer died back in February, something that Was described as “a real shock”. “He certainly didn’t know that he wouldn’t be here to talk about it,” Was told NME. “He didn’t know that he was that sick until about 10 days before he died.”The new album, titled ‘Heavy Lifting’ and out today (October 18), is the first album under the MC5 name since 1971’s ‘High Time’ and features a starry cast of players including Was on bass and Tom Morello and Slash on guitar.Was claimed that the fittingly impassioned, political and altruistic album – previewed with the singles ‘Boys Who Play With Matches’ and ‘Can’t Be Found’ – wasn’t initially mooted as an MC5 record.“Everyone was there to work with Wayne,” he said. “I honestly can’t remember how the concept [of making it an MC5 album] got introduced.

I’m not even sure that that was the intention going in. [But] it was certainly to capture the spirit of that music, not just to be 18 again, but what would that music sound like if people in their seventies played it?

Can you keep that rebellious spirit alive? Can a 75-year-old put that edge on? I think the answer is yes.”Check out our full interview below, where Was told NME about famous friends, politics, and keeping the punk spirit of MC5 alive.NME:Hi Don.

How did you come to be on the record?Don Was: “Wayne just called me to come play. I welcomed any chance to play with Wayne Kramer for most of my life.