For the past eight years, Jonny Greenwood, the maestro guitarist of Radiohead and the Smile, has been living on a farm in the Italian region Le Marche, harvesting and pressing olives with friends and family to make an artisanal extra virgin olive oil. That oil is on sale now, at £60 (roughly $75) per signed liter bottle, via Radiohead’s W.A.S.T.E. store. Radiohead’s longtime artist Stanley Donwood designed the “Greenwood Oil” label.
With a hint of apology, Greenwood tweeted that he was “really proud of the final product,” despite this being the sort of thing that “rock stars of a certain age seem to drift into.” (“It’s Sting we’re all thinking of,” he added in the fine print.) “It’s an addictive thing though, harvesting and pressing this glorious fruit, and spending more and more time with Italian friends in this beautiful country,” Greenwood wrote. “Mejo de cusci’ non se trova. Jemo a manga!” That last part roughly translates from a regional Italian dialectic as, “You can’t find any better than that. Let’s go eat!” (Hat tip to Feedy Frizzi for the translation.)
Earlier this week, Greenwood announced an album with the Israeli rocker Dudu Tassa: