Q: What was Woody Guthrie’s goal as a songwriter?

Arlo: "Woody wrote what he felt. He didn’t always think that he had to be right. The idea was that if everybody stood up and said what they thought, the best effort of everybody’s contribution would work itself out into a better country for everybody."

Nora: " Woody didn’t write songs so that he would get rich and famous. He identified with workers and saw himself as a good trade worker whose job was songwriting. It was his way of pitching in to the communal effort to make life better for your family, your community, even humanity. Some people built bridges: his job was writing songs."

Elizabeth: "Woody honestly believed his music could -- and would -- change the world. He wrote and sang songs in response to world events going on around him: the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, W.W.II, fascism, and racism. His heart was with poor, hard-working people, those with little power. ‘I hate songs that run you down,’ he wrote. ‘I am out to sing the songs that will make you take pride in yourself.’"

Q: What was the most valuable lesson you received from your father?

Arlo: "One of the most valuable things I got from Woody was to really trust your own instincts. When in doubt, do your own thing. When in doubt, most people do what everybody else does."

Nora: "I have to separate out what I know from being around Woody as a kid and the writings he left behind. He couldn’t talk when I knew him. I used to avoid looking at him because his body was so disgusting. Then one day I remember looking in his eyes and they were so soft and lively and twinkly when the rest of his body was devastated with Huntington’s disease. I realized he was fine and healthy and beautiful. I’d been looking at the body, not the man. There is a lesson in that. When I meet people who are doing something I don’t like, I try to look in their eyes."

Q: In about 17 years, Woody wrote over three thousand songs. What other things did he do in his "spare" time?

Arlo: "Woody read extensively. He would go to a library and pick out a shelf to read, not a book. And he would write in the margins of every book, and underline things. You couldn’t return them. He ruined them."

Nora: "Woody didn’t have any spare time. He was always in some form of creative expression. He liked to wander around the streets, looking and talking to people. Everything existed for him as fodder for his own purpose as a songwriter."

Elizabeth: "Woody didn’t write only songs -- he wrote thousands of letters, kept journals and published two novels. There was no stopping Woody -- he had a lot to say.

Woody was on a spiritual quest for most of his life. He believed in Jesus and God, and embraced many other world religions besides Christianity. He tried yoga, going into trances, hands-on healing and meditation. Besides avidly reading the bible, he poured over The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Of course, it all came out in his songs!

Woody was also a rambler. He couldn’t stay put for long. He loved to be out on the road, meeting people, picking up a few bucks playing music, letting songs roll around in his mind until they were fully formed. He also loved to drink. He often sat down with a cheap bottle of wine to write a song, or joined other hobos by a fire passing around a jug.

One thing Woody didn’t like to do was hard physical labor. He’d much rather play his guitar and sing while others did the hard work."

Q: In your opinion, how have Woody Guthrie and his songs affected the world?

Arlo: "Something got picked up in the world as a result of Woody’s life that we celebrate, or we wouldn’t be writing these books and we wouldn’t be singing his songs. Something survived."

Nora: "Woody inspired and nurtured other people’s creativity. They listened to his songs and read his books and went out and did something magical or wonderful. Like Dylan. He was really affected by Woody, then he went out and wrote and sang his own songs."

Elizabeth: "One of the wonderful things about Woody’s music is that millions, perhaps even a billion people, know his song, This Land was Made for You and Me. He was out to write simple, beautiful songs you could sing the first time you heard them, and he certainly did well with This Land.

One of the most amazing things about Woody was his incredible patriotism. He was quick to criticize America for her short comings, yet he was passionately American. One of my favorite songs is Pastures of Plenty. After expressing his love of fertile farming land and yet how difficult the migrant farm worker’s life is, Woody ends the song with ‘My land I’ll defend with my Life if needs be, ‘Cause my Pastures of Plenty must always be free!’"

Q: Why do you think his songs are so important?

Nora: "They sound like they’ve been there forever, like mountains or rivers. Woody’s lyrics have a lot of character, but they are not stamped with his personality. You don’t identify the ego of the poet. His songs are so simple you don’t even realize somebody wrote them. They just become yours."

Elizabeth: Woody played a major role in the folk song revival of the 1940’s and 1950’s. His songs help us understand what it was like to live through the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, the labor movement, W.W.II and the McCarthy era. His music influenced Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and many other musicians. Woody’s music keeps finding larger audiences as more of his work is released on CDs and new musicians record his songs. Great examples of this are Billy Bragg’s two Mermaid Avenue CD’s, and Daddy-O Daddy, recorded by a diverse group of artists."

Q: What was it like growing up in the Guthrie household?

Nora: "My mother told me when I was about a year old I toddled towards Woody, sleeping on the couch, and suddenly I STOPPED. There was something so instinctive, so primal about my reaction, my mother realized there was something wrong with him. Up till then it had been friends and professionals complaining that he was drinking too much. He was not drinking right then, just sleeping. It was the Huntington’s, with violence that came out of nowhere, with no warning.

Not long after that Woody was hospitalized. I remember visiting him there. Every weekend we went to Greystone. Sunday was Dad's day, except when we went to camp or were away for some reason.

Arlo is older than me and saw the change. I was born into it. Arlo had more of the ups and downs. He says he was our father's "seeing eye son," like a "seeing eye dog." He walked with him, talked with him, took him to the bathroom, fed him."

Q: What do you think your role is in the Woody Guthrie legacy?

Arlo: "I am his son, but I am also in the lineage of his heart, his disciple. I’m an admirer also. It’s sort of an awkward position to be in. It’s not very often that someone is a prophet in his own country, let alone in his own family."

Nora: "I had no agenda when I started running the Woody Guthrie Archives. It evolved when I saw what was there. I found he is primarily a songwriter. Not a political songwriter or a folk singer, just a songwriter. I was just going through the songs under F yesterday -- there were songs about firemen, family, fiction, flu. He wrote about everything. I don’t sense he gave one song more importance than another. So what does that make me? I guess I’m a song plugger."

Elizabeth: I’d like more people to know how complex, difficult, funny and brilliant Woody was. It’s inspiring to see how he kept writing and singing despite incredible tragedies in his life. Also, Woody and those close to him paid a high price for his brilliance and stubbornness. We have incredible music from Woody, but it wasn’t always easy to be him or be around him. I hope people will be able to listen more deeply and compassionately to his music when they know more about his life and the times he was singing about."