Nashville preview: Coldplay's dynasty shows no decline (Chris Martin interview)

Even if he's singing in character, it can be a little hard to swallow the opening line of Coldplay's 2008 hit Viva la Vida. "I used to rule the world," front man Chris Martin croons over a mix of regal cellos and dance beats, but anyone who's even casually followed popular music in the past few years can tell you that the British rock group's rule is far from over, writes the Tennessean ahead of Coldplay's show at the Sommet Center on Saturday.

The group is one of the few modern rock acts able to perform in arenas and stadiums throughout the world — they'll headline Sommet Center on Saturday — and they picked up awards for song of the year and best rock album at this year's Grammys. But an equally impressive accomplishment is the fact that Martin and his bandmates have, by all accounts, remained some of the warmest and most sincere rock stars around.

They have similar strengths as performers. They manage to transcend arena rock's super-size scale and close the gap between performers and fans with sets that feel downright intimate — even when you're sharing them with 15,000 others. During a brief chat, Martin told us how he attempts to make that connection, explained why his band is giving away copies of a CD to fans and surprised us with his recent listening habits.

When Coldplay played at the Ryman in 2003, you played a bit of "Ring of Fire" and told the crowd, "So many of our heroes have played here, from Johnny Cash all the way through to Johnny Cash, including Johnny Cash."

Of course. You'd have to be an idiot not to have Johnny Cash as one of your musical heroes. I'd like to meet someone for whom he isn't a musical hero. I'm sure every band that comes through Nashville says it, but you have to be aware of what you're stepping into.

Besides Johnny Cash, do you listen to any other country artists, past or present?

The last country thing I listened to was that band Sugarland, and they're more modern country, and they're not from Tennessee, I know that. They're from Atlanta.

It might surprise some people that you listen to modern country music as well.

I listen to everything. That's my job. I've got to know.

Even six years ago, you could have played in a larger venue than the Ryman. These days, it seems like it'd be impossible for Coldplay to do that. Are there benefits and drawbacks to playing in these huge spaces?

With the songs we've been writing for these last two albums, we love playing them in the big places, because we love the sound of everyone singing together. For us, it's always been about trying to create some sort of communal spirit. The sound of thousands of people singing the same melody, it really makes me feel alive. But I can definitely see (us) in a couple of years doing something more stripped-down and playing in smaller places. It's such a great privilege to be able to play a bigger place, but I think we'll take a leaf out of Bruce Springsteen's book and go back and forth. But I think for this album, for this concert, it's more fun the more people there are.

You guys are giving out a free live CD (LeftRightLeftRightLeft) on this tour. What motivated you to do that?

We looked at how many people had gone to see us in concert in the last year, and we thought, "Man, that's a lot of people. We should do something in return." So we thought that this summer, we'll make a record and we'll pay for it ourselves, and we'll give it to people that bought tickets. It's really just a way of saying, "Thank you." Maybe it came from my son's birthday party a while ago. I remembered that when you leave a birthday party, everybody gets a little bag.

It's also nice that it's actually a physical gift. It'd be easy to just say, "Here's your download code."

Well, it will be available for download for people who can't get to the concert. Who knows if it's the last CD we'll make, since CDs are disappearing, but it's a nice package. I'm pretty proud of the fact that we can do that.

Is it harder to make a personal connection with a larger audience? If so, how do you combat that?

There are a lot of things we're doing to try to break the barrier between band and audience. Most of it involves going into the audience — physically crossing the barrier.

Are you escorted by security, or is it more spontaneous than that?

We do it very safely (laughs). We're Coldplay. We do everything safely.

Is there a mindset that you get into while performing to make a concert feel more personal, more real?

If I can be totally honest, I just think about the fact that people have spent some of their wages, had to go through parking, missed their homework, got a baby sitter, or they're taping Desperate Housewives. I try to think of the audience as individuals, and I just feel extremely buzzed about the fact that they've come to see our concert. I don't know how it translates into our performance, but it makes you try harder.

Coldplay at Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH (4 June 2009):