Beck: I’m not a Scientologist

Beck insists it is a "misconception" that he is a Scientologist.
The ‘Where It’s At’ hitmaker’s dad, composer David Campbell, is a member of the controversial religion, as his own ex-wife Marissa Ribisi – the mother of his children Cosimo, 15, and Tuesday, 12 – but it has never been something he had a "connection or affiliation" with as he’s always just focused on his own work.
He told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper: "I think there’s a misconception that I am a Scientologist. I’m not a Scientologist. I don’t have any connection or affiliation with it.
"My father has been a Scientologist for a long time, but I’ve pretty much just focused on my music and my work for most of my life, and tended to do my own thing … I think it’s just something people ran with."
When it comes to his work, the 49-year-old singer believes he is "serving a master" and doesn’t always have control over his own writing process.
Discussing how a song on his new album, ‘Hyperspace’, was written about the overdose of a friend in a motel room more than 20 years ago, he said: "For some reason, it came out now. And something I went through two years ago, I might be able to articulate in a song 15 years from now …
"That’s just the mystery of craft. You are serving a master, in a way. Sometimes it doesn’t completely feel like it’s up to me."
And despite his years of success, Beck still feels like he has a lot to learn.
He said: "You hear a song on the radio, even something like ‘Under Pressure’ – it’s such an elaborate and realised piece of work.
"As a songwriter you go, how did they fit all these things together so seamlessly and it’s so memorable and meaningful? There’s thousands of songs that good … I’m still extremely humbled by how much I have left to learn."