ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Versatile Heart liner notes say that the song ''Blue and Gold'' came ''from an idea by Richard Thompson.'' Could you expand on that?
LINDA THOMPSON: It was 20-odd years ago. I think the first line or something was Richard. So, I thought I ought to name-check him.

Which you do in a nice, if somewhat arch, fashion...
Yes, ''a little known but extremely useful guitarist.''

Do you find people tiptoe around the subject of Richard when talking to you?
Sometimes they do. Although I had a great interview with a Spanish guy who said, ''Do you think Richard's a sadist for making you sing those songs on Shoot Out the Lights?'' I just thought that was too funny. He also said to me, ''Do you like music?'' I just live for questions like that. I hear the same f---ing questions time after time. So [when he said], ''Do you think Richard's a sadist?'' I go, ''Well, it was bad enough in the studio, you should have seen the whips in the bedroom!'' That's fun.

But there must be times when it's annoying.
It doesn't annoy me, it's just strange that a lot of people think it was yesterday. I was in a bar in Chicago and I was actually watching Richard. I happened to be in Chicago and he was doing a gig and I went to see him. And some woman at the bar said to me, ''I know your pain.'' And I'm going, what? She said that she'd got divorced and everything, and could she buy me a drink. I said, ''Make it an extremely large one.'' Because I know I'm going to be at the bar with her for the next two hours. And she obviously thought it had happened to me yesterday. So, that's funny, that time-warpy thing. But, really, I don't mind talking about anything that sells one more record, to be honest.

Okay, well in that case, is it true that on your final tour with Richard you would kick him onstage whenever he was foolish enough to come within range?
I did, I did. Oh yeah, I was always trying to kick him, poison him, God knows what. Hit him on the head with a blunt object! Oh yeah, I was a nightmare. It must have been fun to watch. One guy in a club told me that he'd had the Sex Pistols in and that I was much worse. I was so thrilled: worse that the Sex Pistols! He said, yeah, you have really made a mess of this dressing room. My claim to immortality — I'm worse than Sid Vicious!

Video clip: See a vintage performance by Richard and Linda Thompson from 1975:

Do you have any odd celebrity fans?
Yeah, Mr. Spock!

Leonard Nimoy?
Yeah. Actually, I have lots of them, if I could only remember. I have just the worst memory in the world. But sometimes people do show up that quite shock me. The guy...Norm from Cheers [George Wendt]! That's my favorite, when he shows up. And the usual suspects in terms of musicians. We've done gigs, Richard and I, in New York, that Bob Dylan was in the audience for — that's great. But the ones that I really like are Norm from Cheers and Mr. Spock.

On your MySpace page it says, ''Elvis was not my boyfriend.'' Why?
Well, there's this [other] Linda Thompson who's married to David Foster, who produces Celine Dion. She was with Elvis when he died. [Editor's note: In fact, the ''other'' Linda Thompson split up with Elvis shortly before his death.] So periodically I get calls from the [tabloids] and they go, ''Can you tell me one more time about when you found Elvis?'' And I go, ''Well, he was lying on the floor and he was really bloated and his head was down the toilet and blah-blah-blah.''

And they print it?
Yes, they print it! And I used to sometimes get Linda Thompson's royalty checks. David Foster makes gazillions — he produced the Corrs, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand. And I think sometimes she writes some lyrics. So, occasionally I get a check for, like, $350,000, and I'd go, I know this is for the other Linda. You've got to give it back, it's very boring. And she'll probably be looking at mine with a microscope!

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