Here, one of Rolling Stone’s 250 greatest guitarists of all time talks Wawa, Lincoln Drive, and fatherhood.
Kurt Vile / Photograph by Kyle Kielinski
Singer-songwriter, producer, and guitarist Kurt Vile, who has an official city of Philadelphia day named in his honor, is one of the chillest rock stars you’ll ever meet. His latest album, Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me, reflects the laid-back, lo-fi ethos he’s known for: It was recorded mostly in his basement in his equally chill Mount Airy neighborhood. If you’re not familiar with Vile but you like folks like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, you’ll no doubt hear their influences in Vile’s sound. You can see for yourself on July 25th, when he co-headlines Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better concert weekend in Fairmount Park.
I got worried when I heard the title of your new album, Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me, because it sounds a little like a goodbye. Are you heading to L.A. or Nashville like so many other successful musicians?
No, no. I’m not going anywhere. I just love Philadelphia, and it has been good to me, and it continues to be good to me, and it will continue to be good to me in the future. So there’s the title but also some other Philly references on the album, like on the opening track, “Zoom ’97,” I sing, “Jump in my whip./My engine whines./Zigzag my way/down Lincoln Drive.” Lincoln Drive is the most beautiful street in all of Philadelphia.
As well as the most terrifying to drive at night in the rain.
[Laughs] Yeah. And you know, a couple of my heroes wrote songs about Philadelphia, both of them on the soundtrack for the movie Philadelphia: Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen1. Now, in those cases, they are singing about a place they are not from, but I’m from here. Other than two years of my life when I lived in Boston, I’ve lived in Philadelphia.
Well, I want you to be careful here. People from Delco can be sensitive, and you actually grew up in Delco.
It’s true. I’m from Lansdowne, and I’m proud of that as well. The funny thing is that over the pandemic, when I had to stop touring for years, my Delco accent came back full force. I was just driving around in Delco recently for some doctors’ appointments, and I saw my old pizza shop, Paul Revere2.
Did you stop in?
I did! I hadn’t had cheese in forever, but I said fuck it and ate half a pizza on the drive home.
Eating gooey pizza while zigzagging on Lincoln Drive? I need a Valium.
[Laughs]
How long have you lived in Philly proper, aside from that brief spell in Patriotsland?
I know, and I’m a huge Eagles fan. Uh, so I graduated from Penn Wood High in, I think, 1998, and I moved straight to the Art Museum area. I got that Art Museum vibe and wanted something different, so then I went to Northern Liberties in 2003 when it was still pretty bombed-out.
I remember those days! That was around the time Standard Tap opened and the neighborhood started to change, with the same kind of impact that Johnny Brenda’s had when it opened in Fishtown in 2003. The neighborhoods look nothing like they did back then.
Yeah, believe me, I know. Now, there are no empty lots. There are no beautiful warehouse walls to be seen. It’s a little like Williamsburg or something, I guess.
Speaking of Johnny Brenda’s, I’ve seen you play there, and it’s been such an important part of Philadelphia’s music scene since it opened. How do you rate our music scene these days?
There are so many shows in Philadelphia every night, if you know where to look. The music scene has always been booming. I can go see music every night, then come home and make a record in my basement once my wife and kids are asleep. And I get to go out and tour and see the world and come back and feel cozy and at home. I have so many friends who’ve left Philly, but they have Philly in their hearts. They love it. They miss it. It’s a special town. I think the new album will be bittersweet to them.
You’re on a major tour right now across the U.S. and Europe. Have you found any good cheesesteaks in far-flung places?
Some are good, depending on the roll. But there’s no roll like a Philadelphia roll, so they are never quite the same or as good. As you know, it’s all about the roll. But I actually don’t eat meat anymore.
How come?
Well, my daughters, who are 14 and 16, have always been vegetarians. And my wife, Suzanne, has been a vegetarian since she was in her late teens. Over the pandemic, when we all had to basically stay at home, my wife and daughters finally got me.
It’s probably for the best.
Honestly, even if I wanted to eat meat now, I feel like it would just make me feel gross, like so … heavy.
Gigs and studio sessions don’t encourage the best eating habits. What do you eat during these late-night basement recording sessions?
Up here in Mount Airy, when I’m recording late at night, the only thing for me to order is the veggie hoagie from Wawa. I put some mayo on it. It’s pretty good. The vegan cheesesteak at Triangle Tavern3 in South Philly is something I get whenever I can. I’m going to my parents’ for a Fourth of July cookout, so Impossible burgers and sausages satisfy that itch. I definitely fuck with those.
You’ve lived in Mount Airy for 10 years. Describe the area for readers who haven’t been there.
It’s really beautiful. It’s easy to park. There are a lot of driveways. There’s the Wissahickon and the woods and the trails. Some of those trails, you can find yourself high up on a cliff, like you were in Last of the Mohicans or something. And it’s an awesome, mixed community. We really love it. We homeschool the girls, and it’s just been a wonderful place for them to grow up.
Your kids are teenagers now. What were you doing when you were, say, 15?
I was a busboy at the Blue Comet right on Baltimore Pike in Lansdowne. It was such a great diner. With my first paycheck, I went to Borders and bought every single Pavement CD I could find. That was such an exciting time for indie rock. Pavement was my gateway drug.
And this month at the Dell, you get to co-headline Connor Barwin’s Make the World Better concerts with Pavement.
Yes! I did Connor’s first Make the World Better,4 which was at Union Transfer in 2014. And I’ve wanted to play the Dell for a long, long time. It’s going to be really fun and exciting. We’re just gonna go for it!
Did you grow up in a musical household?
Well, I grew up in a musically supportive household. My dad was always playing records. He would play the same bluegrass and country records over and over again. We were always singing along to them, because how could we not know all the words, as often as he was playing them.
Rolling Stone included you on its 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list.5 Were you already playing guitar when you were a teen?
No. My parents wanted me to play the trumpet, but I kept quitting. It just didn’t work for me, and I think it was also because someone else wanted me to do something, and I was a teenager, so … Then, when I turned 14, my dad gave me a banjo, which I was really into. This was around the time that Beck came out with Mellow Gold, and I kind of took off on this musical journey from there.
Are your wife and daughters into music?
My wife, Suzanne, is definitely into music, and she pushed my daughters, Awilda and Delphine, to learn the harp, which they’ve been playing since they were little. They both play a little guitar as well, and Delphine plays keyboards. There are musical instruments all over the house.
I can imagine. You mentioned Springsteen earlier. I recently interviewed your friend Sean Agnew, co-producer of the Make the World Better concerts, and asked who the most overrated living musician is. His answer? Bruce Springsteen!
That’s fine. I get it. It’s all about taste. You can go down so many Bruce Springsteen wormholes — listen to “Atlantic City,” “Independence Day,” “My Father’s House.” He writes about how his dad sacrificed a lot so that Springsteen could become who he is. Yes, he’s now a multimillionaire, but his heart is in the right place. And he’s basically said fuck Trump,6 so you have to respect that, whether you like his music or not.
Footnotes:
- Springsteen’s moody “Streets of Philadelphia” won one Oscar and four Grammys. ↩
- Currently celebrating its 60th year in business, it is one of the oldest pizza shops in Delco. ↩
- Vile celebrated his record release with a Triangle Tavern vegan cheesesteak giveaway in May. ↩
- Barwin’s MTWB Foundation has donated more than $50 million to the betterment of Philly parks, playgrounds, and rec centers. Citizen Media Group is a sponsor of the Dell event. ↩
- JVile beat Andy Summers from the Police, Robby Krieger from the Doors, and Paul Simon. ↩
- The Boss has called Trump “a threat to American democracy,” “incompetent,” and a “moron.”↩
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Published as “Kurt Vile Has Found His Muse — and It’s Us” in the July 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
Victor Fiorillo
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