12 Interviews of Christmas – Peter Doherty: "Everybody’s talking about AI, but something that can’t be replicated digitally is the human soul and the warmth of human contact"

Originally published in Hot Press in April 2025:

Michael Stipe’s nipples, Dolores O’Riordan’s bellybutton, Mike Oldfield’s wine cellar, Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry having a wheelchair race, Layne Staley astride a giant blow-up penis, Peter Hook getting his highlights done, Shaun Ryder nodding off mid-question and another legendary Mancunian musician’s ganja bag...

To the list of Things I Didn’t Expect To See During An Interview can now be added Pete Doherty’s The Simpsons Christmas pyjamas.

It’s a shade after 3pm and Pete has just crawled out of his tour bus leaba ahead of his gig tonight in Oldham, Lancashire where he’s being supported by Kerry’s very own Junior Brother, more of whom anon.

Cosied up to him on the sofa is his dog who’s made several on stage appearances as his human treats his fans to a pre-release earful of Felt Better Alive, which continues Mr. D’s run of must-have solo albums.

“This is Gladys who’s six this year,” he says introducing me to the gorgeous pooch in question. “I’ve got a litmus test – which isn’t entirely foolproof because some people have a genuine valid reason to not like dogs – but if we’re out and about and somebody reacts positively to Gladys, I know I’ll like ‘em. She can’t really do Libertines gigs because she’s got very sensitive ears and they’re overly loud, but when it’s a bit more chilled – like it has been on this little tour of places I don’t normally get to – she’ll watch from the side of the stage and sometimes wander on and sit there like she did the other night in Camden. I tell you who she loved last year when they were playing some of their quieter songs – The Mary Wallopers. They were supporting The Libertines in Brighton and, fuck me, they were great. One of them broke a string but the guitar tech was too busy stroking Gladys to notice. I think he might have got sacked that day!

“The baby’s on board as well, as is the missus, so it really is the Doherty family on tour!”

Speaking of his toddler Billie-May, how is fatherhood treating Pete the third time round?

“It’s testing every faculty I have,” he admits. “All of your parental instincts are needed to keep this person alive and fed until they’re ready to fly the nest. Selflessly being there for someone is a whole new way of living. I think I’ve always had it in me but, even though I’ve two other amazing children, this is the first time I’ve felt, ‘Yeah, I’m doing this right.’ It’s hard work but I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way.”

One of Felt Better Alive’s numerous standouts, ‘Pot Of Gold’, finds Pete sweetly intoning: “Hush my darling, no don’t you cry/ Daddy’s trying to write you a lullaby/ And if that lullaby is a hit/ Dad can buy you loads of cool shit.”

Does Billie-May approve?

“Yeah, she loves it,” her proud father beams. “When I wrote it, it was just me and her there. It grew out of the ‘Mockingbird’ lullaby that we were all sung when we were kids. She’s 22 months now and does this sweet little dance. She keeps her back straight and bends her legs – but only to that song.”

Felt Better Alive goes from a whisper to a scream courtesy of ‘Poca Mahoney’s’, the tale of a nefarious crack house manager and all the characters who hang out – and get strung out – there.

“It’s a real place I used to frequent but which the manager won’t let me visit anymore,” he says a tad wistfully. “All I’ll say is that it’s a place with a little horror and tragedy associated with it.”

Adding to the rowdiness is Cavan native Lisa O’Neill.

“When The Libertines played the Olympia last year, she jumped on stage and did ‘Night Of The Hunter’ with us which was a glorious moment. I knew about Lisa from her Rough Trade album, All Of This Is Chance. The ‘My little soul was five-years old line’ line – which is really dark – comes from her telling me this horrible story about a priest and a girl. I did a little spoken word thing on her song, ‘Homeless In The Thousands (Dublin In The Digital Age)’ and she repaid the compliment on ‘Poca Mahoney’s’.”

O’Neill also pointed Pete in the direction of the aforementioned Junior Brother who – cue fanfare – has just become the latest signing to his Strap Originals record label.

“She might see it differently, but I think we became firm friends and soulmates in a short space of time,” he resumes. “Trusting her musical taste implicitly, when Lisa said with some urgency, ‘Ya have to get on to this, boy, he’s the dog’s!’, I knew I had to check him out on his home soil. I forget the name of the pub (It was upstairs at The Hut in Phibsboro, Stuart) but it’s the sort of place all Englishmen dream of visiting in Ireland. Y’know, loads of characters and road signs to Ballybunnion hanging on the wall. We walked in on this – how do I describe it? – landscape of pagan psychedelia with belts of Irish folk lyricism and yet a very modern, possibly post-modern sensibility. There’s something really fractured and itinerant about Ronan, AKA Junior Brother’s lyrics.

“That’s if you can work out what he’s saying,” Pete adds with a grin. “One of the things I like about his live act, aside from the songs obviously and his musicianship, is the warm way he talks to the crowd. It’s not just, ‘Thank you, this next one’s called...’ I’ve no idea what he’s talking about half the time but you can tell it’s sincere. When he speaks to English crowds and they don’t reply it’s not ‘cause they’re being rude or ignorant, they just haven’t got a clue what he’s on about.”

Junior Brother and Peter Doherty (Photo: Strap Originals)

The Mary Wallopers, Lisa O’Neill and Junior Brother join a long list of folk-minded Irish artists – The Pogues and The Wolfe Tones being at the top of it – that Pete greatly admires.

“I love the stories, the wisdom and the passing on of songs from one generation to the next,” he enthuses. “They’re the chains that hold it all together. Everybody’s talking about AI, but something that can’t be replicated digitally is the human soul and the warmth of human contact.”

Curiously, ‘Baron’s Claw’ from the last Libertines album, All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade, is reworked on Felt Better Alive as ‘The Day The Baron Died’.

“The reworking is actually the Libertines one,” Pete informs me. “I wrote and recorded it first, then Carl heard it and wanted us to do it as a band. We had to change the name for publishing reasons, but otherwise it’s the same song done absolutely brilliantly by me and quite well by The Libertines!”

It’s not the only Felt Better... track which has a touch of the Fab Fours about it. Quick pop quiz: favourite Beatle and favourite Beatles album?

“Hmm, yeah, wow… it’s an almost impossible question because it completely depends on the mood and time of day,” he complains. “The contenders would be Sgt. Pepper’s because it’s just life-changing song after life-changing song; The White Album because ‘Back In The U.S.S.R.’ is on it; Revolver similarly because it has ‘Taxman’ and ‘Helter Skelter’; and there’s a case too for Let It Be. You’re setting me up here but I’m going to go for The White Album.

“As for favourite Beatle, that’s an even meaner question. There’s a case to be made for John Lennon towards the end of his life when he did those legendary American TV interviews and was writing nonstop again. The teenage George Harrison was absolutely hilarious and the cranky old man Ringo has become is fantastic too.

“And Paul… I like that he never really lets his guard down. He’s one of the most public figures in the world, yet I don’t think anyone really knows him. I love that he took his kids off to a farm in Scotland when he was really in the limelight and the tabloids were doing their thing. So, gun to my head, I’ll pick Paul.”

That small matter resolved, let us turn our attention to the Felt Better Alive title-track which borrows its “Dredging the mouth of the Humber” refrain from Pete’s favourite funnyman, Tony Hancock, and its country twang from Texas outlaw Townes Van Zandt.

“I discovered Townes about 15 years ago, maybe longer. ‘Pancho And Lefty’ is one of my favourite songs of all time. I love those Americana/bluesy/folk stories, which namecheck cities, characters and the weather. ‘Tangled Up In Blue’, ‘Clay Pigeons’ by Blaze Foley and ‘Me And Bobby McGee’ being some others. Weighty, earthy, western songs.”

Earthy is also a term that applies to ‘Prêtre De La Mer’, the Felt Better Alive track that Pete wrote partly as a homage to The Coral and which features a guest turn from his parish priest.

“His name is Didier. He married us and baptised our daughter. He fancies himself as a singer, has a cordless mic and jumps on the keyboard and bursts into hymns. Once a year he does this benediction where he marches from the church to the sea, whips off his robes and dives in. Last year he kept swimming out and James Bond-style was picked up by a speedboat which disappeared around the cliffs. Talk about showmanship!

“In order for me to be married in a church, we had to sit down and do bible studies with him,” Pete continues. “So he’s been with me on these journeys and helped me reconnect a little bit with the church.”

So is Doherty now a regular church-goer?

“When I’m there I go, yeah,” he nods. “It’s a bit of a lynchpin for the lovely Normandy village I’m in. It’s an aging population so the priest, shall we say, is kept busy. The church is a place where you catch up with people. I was brought up believing in God’s love and being taught it properly as opposed to getting dragged behind the vestry and the priest bumming you, which is what ‘Poca Mahoney’s’ is about. Y’know, the evils of what’s happened with the Catholic Church.

“‘Prêtre De La Mer’ is the opposite of that. It’s the vision of the church and of God which gives me hope and strength.”

My missus, who wouldn’t be having ‘The Recorded Works Of Peter Doherty’ as her specialist Mastermind subject, can immediately tell listening to his songs whether he was on or off drugs at the time. There, she reckons, being “a sparkle about his records now.”

“I think I know what you’re saying,” he reacts. “I can hear sometimes where my voice is… I mean, I can’t necessarily tell but definitely people who are close to me can. Um, I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it.”

Peter Doherty. Photo: Roger Sargent

Pete bigged up both Fontaines D.C. (“‘Starburster’ is just a belter of a tune”) and Kneecap (“They’re really talented”) after catching them before Christmas at the Brixton Academy Gig For Gaza. Have they met yet?

“I’ve seen Kneecap at the airport but disappointingly DJ Provaí didn’t have his balaclava on,” Pete recalls. “I saw some footage from the Dublin Olympia show they did, which just looked like a rave. When they played ‘H.O.O.D.’ it was absolutely bonkers. I haven’t seen the film but have it lined up here on the bus to watch.

“It’s a very different type of music but we’ve also a signed a guy from Antrim, Thomas Urwin, whose take on reality is similar to Kneecap’s. He’s a folk singer that I met while he was busking. Unfortunately he’s fallen out with label management but he’s a great lyricist and a great songwriter. Have a listen to ‘Belfast Is Gonna Burn’ and ‘Man In The Arena’, which is one of Roosevelt’s wartime speeches put to an acoustic guitar.”

Not content with making albums, touring and being a record company mogul, Pete has just released the first issue of his On Strap fanzine, yours for a tenner at his shows.

“There’s Gladys and the Normandy Lion,” he says holding up a copy. “Here’s Thomas Urwin; a play I wrote and never finished called Ed Belly And The Curse Of Paddy Coltrane, which is like a gun fight except with guitars; Real Farmer who are another band we’ve signed and love; and a little story I wrote about a pub in Ireland.”

Talking of quality prose, can he recommend any good books for my summer holliers?

“I seem to be reading a lot of Raymond Chandler short stories,” he says switching into literary critic mode. “He writes in a very particular way that’s kind of seduced me. There’s a book by the American novelist, John Williams, that’s dragged me in. It’s called Stoner, which isn’t what you think it’s about. Stoner is the name of a university professor who’s struggling with his career. And I’m reading A Furious Devotion: The Life Of Shane MacGowan again, which I’ve about four bloody copies of and is really great.”

Two more quick questions before we let Pete change into his eveningwear. Are rumours of a 20th anniversary Babyshambles reunion true?

“It looks like it’s on the cards for later this year,” he confirms.

And what about The Libertines doing an ABBA and performing in holographic form this summer in Camden?

“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about because I was there,” he concludes. “I’m not exactly sure what it is. An AI-programmed thing maybe, which means you’ll be able to watch us long after we’re dead. It’ll be as big a surprise for me as it is you when I see it!”