Legendary composer John Williams has walked back his plans on retirement stating ‘you can’t ‘retire’ from music. It’s like breathing.’ and with regards his collaborations with Steven Spielberg he shares, ‘he isn’t is a man you can say ‘no’ to.’
During an American Cinematheque celebration of the duo at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills on Thursday night — and that was before Williams, 90, thrilled the crowd, and surprised Spielberg, by rescinding his prior declaration that he would retire from film scoring after his latest project with Spielberg, The Fabelmans and then one more Indiana Jones film.
“Steven is a lot of things,” Williams said in response to a question from veteran music journalist Jon Burlingame about packing it in. “He’s a director, he’s a producer, he’s a studio head, he’s a writer, he’s a philanthropist, he’s an educator. One thing he isn’t is a man you can say ‘no’ to.” After an eruption of applause from the audience, Williams noted that he knew Spielberg’s late father, Arnold, who worked at Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation until he was 100. “So I’ve got 10 more years to go. I’ll stick around for a while!” He added, “Also, you can’t ‘retire’ from music. It’s like breathing. It’s your life. It’s my life. A day without music is a mistake.”
Spielberg, who was visibly taken aback at Williams’ change of plans, cracked, “I’d better get to work to find out what the hell I’m doing next!”
Read the article in full here, and we can’t wait to see what Williams turns his mind and hands to next!
