The spooky thing is that two weeks before the Grammys, I wrote down my goals, and one of them was, 'To be on the top of the Billboard charts with a song I wrote and performed.' ... It's completely unheard of.
Influenced by Pete Seeger and the Weavers, McLean proudly wore the mantle of troubadour in the early 1970s, when 'American Pie' topped the Billboard charts, and has never shed the cape.
I'm going to build an empire. I'm always writing for someone else. I want to be someone who has her fingerprints all over the pop charts.