Before American Pie, Don McLean made $300 a week. The hit song changed his family’s life

Musician Don McLean is best known for his hit song, America Pie. Here, the 81-year-old talks about how that song changed his life, how his paternal grandmother sparked his love of music, and the joy of meeting his life partner 11 years ago.

My maternal grandmother, Angela, was born in Italy and came to the US with my grandfather. Theirs was an arranged marriage; they had nine children, including my mother. Angela didn’t speak English, so I never got to talk with her in-depth, but she was a powerful force in the family.

My paternal grandmother, who I called Nana Olive McLean, loved to play music. She would sit in front of the record player and listen to Elvis Presley and say, “Hey, Donnie, those boys in the background behind Elvis, they can harmonise.” I didn’t know what she meant, so I asked her to show me. That’s when my love of music began.

My mother, Elizabeth, had my sister, Betty Anne, 15 years before me, so I was raised like an only child. My sister was out of the house by the time I was six years old. Mom was a fan of Italian opera singer [Enrico] Caruso, who had a massive, haunting voice. It was also why I started to think about singing in a “bel canto” style and trained in it many years later.

My father died when I was 15, and it threw the family in a tailspin. My mother had never worked. She’d been on housewife duties and without her husband she was bereft and inconsolable. That is something I had to deal with.

My sister had an alcohol problem; people didn’t talk about it back then. She was a dear person who wanted to please the people she loved. When she was in her 40s, I got her into college; it’s what she’d always dreamed of doing. She graduated with honours and became a therapist, helping recovering alcoholics, for the rest of her life.

I’d struck a music publishing deal by 1970 and was being paid $US300 a week. My first album, Tapestry, came out, and it was around that time my sister, who’d had a baby boy and then got divorced, moved back in with Mom. I told Mom I’d help with the money I made from being on the road and ended up putting them all in the family home. It restored their lives.

I became a music star and had women running after me from a very young age. It all became very confusing. The music business is corrupting and the experience should be avoided! But you can’t help it. Between 1971 and 1975 I really experienced fame, and had more hits in the 1980s.

Young women were my predominant audience back then. I had a lot of girlfriends, but I was so involved in my music – making records and writing and being on the road 175 days a year – that I was mostly exhausted and life became a bit of a mess.

I was in my mid-20s when American Pie came out. My world went crazy. The song was eight minutes long and was cut to three for radio. It changed my life and brought a lot of attention my way.

I’ve been married twice, but my marriages are off the table [for discussion] by order of the court. I always thought I would get married, and I did.

I met my life partner, Paris, 11 years ago. She is the love of my life. She is funny, extremely smart and goes everywhere with us on tour. She is Mexican, and one of the most caring and understanding people I know. In 2024, I wrote a song for her called Mexicali Gal.

A young American singer, Jessie Murph, asked if I’d like to sing American Pie with her last year, and got me on stage at her LA show. Seeing young people embrace songs from the past is wonderful. We pulled it off beautifully.

I have always looked up to singer Judy Collins – I was in love with her music back in the 1960s. I met her when I was 18, and she didn’t pay me no mind whatsoever. But as the years went by, we crossed paths. I got to work with her in 2015 on her album Strangers Again. We sang Send in the Clowns. It was a great moment.

Don McLean is touring nationally throughout October.

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