There’s general agreement that the song is about the cultural and political decline of the US in the 1960s, a farewell to the American dream after the assassination of President Kennedy. 'The day the music died' … the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly is thought to be one of the song's references – but McLean hints it could be about his father's death. “Know what I mean?” It’s the big McLean theme running through his songwriting, from American Pie to the virtually unknown Run Diana Run, a weird musical dirge about Princess Diana. “I’m nearing the end of the high-dive,” he says. “I blamed myself.” We’ve been talking about death for half an hour – his father’s and his feelings about his own. So what did he do when his father died? “I cried for two years,” he says. “I’m feeling it in my lungs,” says the 75-year-old. You can’t see the sun for the acrid smoke. Wildfires are still burning across the state. The singer-songwriter behind the 1971 classic American Pie is speaking from his home in Palm Desert, a town in California where he is now well into what he calls the “desert phase” of his life. I didn’t know what I was going to do without him. A few days later, his father dropped dead right in front of him. “Because it’s going to happen,” the boy replied. “Don’t be ridiculous, Donny, why would you say such a thing?” she said. Distraught, he ran to tell his grandmother. When Don McLean was 15 years old, he had a premonition that his father was going to die.
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