As a songwriter and a satirist, one of the best America has produced in either category with brutally funny, eminently hummable demolitions of racists, sexists, size-ists and fascists in his catalogue, Randy Newman knows that an excess of opportunity isn’t always desirable. Buffoons in the White House, Aldi bags in the state house, ultra-conservatives labelled spies for the Left, teenage girls labelled threats by the Right, morality lessons from jailed child abusers and a dis

The great American songwriter and provocateur Randy Newman will tour Australia and, for the first time, New Zealand in early 2020. Not with an orchestra, nor with a band, but solo. As generous and engaged as ever, these will be shows encompassing vast musical knowledge and brilliant invention, and yes, he might even take requests. In this brief outtake from my interview with Newman – look out for the full thing in the near future where our conversation ranges across Kennedys