Don McLean never felt "poor" - even when he was broke

He told Fox News Digital: "I was broke, but I was never poor. I think people are poorer now [when] they have more money than they ever were when they were broke, because they don't understand how great they are and how much they have inside, and they've given up, and all they think about is the dollars. "And so, you can have money and still not have that feeling inside, like, 'I can make it anywhere.'

"I never stop feeling that way. Nobody ever told me - I was always better than all those other guys, OK? Nothing set me back. That's America."."

The 'Vincent' singer is perhaps best known for his eight-and-a-half minute ballad 'American Pie' - which was inspired by the tragic plane crash death of rock and roll icon Buddy Holly in 1959 - and noted that any songwriter must experience a certain degree of "pain" in their life before they can realistically put pen to paper to make a hit.

He said: "There's a lot of pain, you know, if you want to be a songwriter. you're not hurting, you're no good as a songwriter. You know, if you have everything work out perfect for you, you've got nothing to say, you know? And you certainly can't relate to the average person out there who has all sorts of bad things in his life, you know, he has to deal with kids on drugs and ex-wives and no money, and you name it, one thing after another."