Sometimes, when a record label releases a “best of” compilation by a performer, the artist in question is often excluded from the process. Not Suzanne Vega. “I was very involved in it and I’m very happy with the way it came out,” is what the acclaimed singer/songwriter told the Gay and Lesbian Times about RetroSpective: The Best of Suzanne Vega (A&M), a 21-track single disc collection that covers her recording career from her 1985 self-titled debut disc through her 2001 album Songs In Red And Gray. The disc opens with her best-known hit single “Luka” and also includes a few obscurities, such as songs from movie soundtracks and the unexpected hit remix of “Tom’s Diner.” The Times spoke with Vega while she was en route to the next venue on her tour.

Suzanne Vega: I really don’t know. It’s one of those things like when two people create the telephone at the same time. You don’t why that happens in the culture. For some reason, that was the time for that subject to become more in the media. The other is that it’s possible that other people have written songs (on the subject) in the past, but because it was the right time for the media to hear about it, the songs got the exposure that they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.

SV: Yeah. I thought so too when I first heard it. I thought, “Wow, that’s really great. They didn’t change the meaning of the song, they just made it much more accessible.”

SV: All I had to do was hear it once and I thought, “Oh, I really like this. Let’s release it.” Because if I hadn’t, no one would have ever heard it, because we would … have probably sued them, which is what my manager wanted to do. But I could also tell from listening that they didn’t have any money. These weren’t slick producers. These were two guys in a room. I said, “Rather than suing them, because nobody wins if we sue them, why not just release it and see if it gets any kind of audience?”

SV: So many people have told me that that I’m starting to think it’s true myself. But that wasn’t what I was thinking of at all. I wasn’t thinking of AIDS at all. But a few people have told me, including AIDS workers, that the song and the album really hit them in a personal way because of their work with AIDS, but it is not what I was thinking of.

SV: Yes, it was a woman that I knew from a local restaurant who was really beautiful. We had sort of a funny connection. We would always say hi to each other and she would ask me where I got a dress or something like that. There was this kind of bond between us. Then I found out from someone who had dated her about her situation. That she wasn’t as feminine as she seemed to be. I thought, “Wow, that’s amazing!” Because she was one of the most charismatic people I think I have ever known. She had the kind of charisma that a movie star would have. She left the restaurant one day. She told me, right before she left, that she was going on some kind of trip across the country. She said goodbye to me and we gave each other a kiss goodbye. I was strangely moved by her whole situation.

SV: To some degree. I think so, yeah.