Popular American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond’s encounter with the devotees.
FAMILY WEEKLY: I understand you did considerable delving into religious tracts while you were working on the “Seagull” score.
NEIL DIAMOND: That’s right. By chance a Hare Krishna kid came knocking on my door about then, wanting to give me literature and such. I invited him in. We talked for a while, and I asked him to read the script and tell me what he thought of it, had him make notes on it. I wound up working with him about six weeks—put him up in an apartment, rented him a car—until I reached the point where I had to work alone on it. He wanted me to go off with him to India and sit in a cave. I said that sounded great and I’d love to, but now I had to write this thing. I gave him a plane ticket, and he went while I settled down to pull it all together.