Tom Cochrane on why you should read Blood Meridian

Musician Tom Cochrane is well known for hit songs like "Life is a Highway" and his work with popular rock band Red Rider. He's been made an Officer of the Order of Canada, been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and won eight Juno awards. His latest album is called Take It Home. So what book does this celebrated singer have on his bedside table these days? This interview originally aired on January 18, 2016.

WHY YOU SHOULD READ BLOOD MERIDIAN

Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian deals with this gang that basically marauds the border between Mexico and the United States, and they massacre natives and Hispanics. It's a very powerful book, and it crosses that line between what you feel is your duty and what is essentially evil. It deals with that dilemma, and how you can be drawn into some pretty terrible things by thinking that you're doing the right thing. 

ON BEING INSPIRED BY POWERFUL WRITING

I would read Dostoyevsky and it would send me on a songwriting binge. It seems to open up a corridor in the brain, where it frees you up and makes you approach things from a different point of view. Cormac McCarthy has that power. If a writer has real impact, I feel like writing after I read them. It opens those floodgates.

Tom Cochrane's comments have been edited and condensed.