Music and Me: Craig Finn of The Hold Steady

The first record I bought was...

Greatest Hits by Bay City Rollers from a shop in my home town in south Minneapolis, when I was about six year’s old.

The first gig I went to was...

The American rock band Styx. My dad took me when I was in sixth grade at school and I was 11 year’s old. It was the first time I saw people drinking and smoking pot. Looking back it was horrendous as the concept of Kilroy Was Here as an album and accompanying stage |show, which opened with a short film, was totally over the top.

My favourite album is...

Let It Be – The Replacements.

But my parents always liked...

Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and Joan Baez.

I couldn’t marry someone who liked...

Rap metal and the New York |Yankees baseball team.

On stage I like to wear...

A pair of jeans and a short-sleeved shirt with a collar and Converse shoes. I don’t carry lucky charms. I do a series of breathing exercises to focus the mind before I go on stage.

I’d love to perform with...

Prince. He is also from Minneapolis. My first choice would be Bruce Springsteen – but that’s already happened. I sang “Rosalita” with him at a benefit concert in New York in April.

One thing that must change in the |music industry is...

Dependence on the big radio stations, but that’s changing via technology.

A great album cover is...

Exile On Main Street released in 1972 by The Rolling Stones. There is so much to this album cover. The more I look at all the different people and faces on it, the more there is to discover.

On my iPod I listen most to...

Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible. They are a joy to watch at the moment.. My favourite track is “(Antichrist Television Blues)”.

If I could have written any song it |would have been...

Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run”.

The worst song I have heard is...

Starship’s “We Built This City”.

The Hold Steady's album ‘Boys and Girls in America’ is out now on Vagrant Records