Patti Smith, 79, says aging hasn’t slowed her down. Instead, it’s made her more determined to keep creating for as long as she can.
During an appearance on Monday’s episode of “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso,” the punk icon spoke about her decadeslong career and how aging has sharpened her awareness of time.
“I’m going to be 79 years old. You know, my mother only lived to be 82 and suddenly, chronology has a different meaning,” Smith told podcast host Sam Fragoso. Smith turned 79 on December 30.
Smith said she “never thought a whole lot” about how much time she had left, but that’s changed in recent years.
“Because I’ve always sort of been a youngish person and always, you know, survived whatever came up. But you start thinking about it, you know, not intentionally, but you know, when I think about it, in just a little over a year, I’ll be 80 years old. That’s a number,” Smith said.
“And I have so much to do and so many things I want to do, so many things I want to write,” she said.
Smith added that she sometimes experiences feelings that are “a little dark.”
“Sometimes we feel disenfranchised, even from ourselves, but we come back like a boomerang,” she said.
But even at her age, Smith says she still sees herself as a worker.
“I work every day. I work hard. It might not always be something that the people will see or anyone will benefit by, but I do my work. Whether it’s a domestic task or writing a poem or doing a performance or speaking to you, I do my work,” she said.
During the conversation, Smith also reflected on the losses she has experienced over the years.
Her husband, Fred Smith, died of heart failure in 1994, a few weeks before her brother died after a stroke. Smith had previously lost her longtime pianist, Richard Sohl, in 1990 and her close friend and collaborator, Robert Mapplethorpe, in 1989.
Smith said that caring for her two young children gave her a reason to keep going.
“And I love life, you know. I’ve always loved life,” she said, adding that she has “always fought to live.”
“I am happy every day that I have an opportunity to do new work or find new work or you know, experience something, even nature,” Smith said.
When asked how she manages to keep moving forward, she said desire has always been her driving force.
“At the worst of times, I didn’t ever have a moment where I didn’t want to live. I could say I didn’t want to have to live without Fred, but in the end, I didn’t want to end my life, you know?” she said.
She also believes in the resilience of humans and says that she tries not to take the loss of her loved ones personally.
“In fact, people have often said, ‘I can’t believe of all that happened to you,’ and I would say, ‘It didn’t happen to me, it happened to them,'” she said.
Instead, Smith says those trials she faced in life have made her want to live more fiercely.
“I’m just one of those people that just wants to live. I mean, I’d love to live till 102,” she said.
This isn’t the first time Smith has talked about growing older. In May 2024, she spoke about coming to terms with her changing appearance on the “Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus” podcast.
“I had a very youthful appearance for a long time. And in the last couple of years, I can see my aging process. So I felt OK, as long as I do good work. As long as I can do good work and can be reasonably pleased with my appearance. That’s fine with me. I’m not so deeply connected with that anymore,” Smith said.
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