I don’t think there’s anything that I was ever hired to do that I would appear to have been less qualified for. And that entire episode began because the two of them met at the theater in Paris that was showing Phantom of the Paradise. The other remarkable gift to my mid-seventies was winning the Grammy for album of the year with Daft Punk. So having just pretty much completed the score for Pan’s Labyrinth for the stage with Gustavo Santaolalla and having written a couple original songs for Book of Life, which Guillermo produced, it’s just glorious.

I don’t know if he was at the concert or not, but he was there in his dad’s suit, and he had an album for me to sign of Phantom of the Paradise. There are so many people who I’m working with now… Well, the classic example is, age 16, a kid showed up in Mexico City at a concert I’d given. It was a little bit like a piece of your art that’s also like a grandfather to other opportunities. What place does Phantom of the Paradise hold in your career and your heart? While recovery and creator’s rights are priorities for Williams - who has been sober since 1990, and the president of ASCAP since 2009 - these days, the affable artist was only too happy to reminisce on Phantom, noting, “It’s a delight to see something that was basically ignored by the general population in 1974 that, thanks to the kind fans, has rolled on to something of a life today.”

Phantom of the opera lyrics writer