'Chastening experience' has Keillor pondering show's future

The news from Lake Wobegon: In "a couple more years," there probably will be no more news from Lake Wobegon.

"A Prairie Home Companion" host Garrison Keillor said Wednesday that he is "not counting on doing it [hosting the show] more than a couple more years." He added that he would like to see the show continue with more of a musical focus, and that he would love to serve as that show's producer.

Keillor suffered a mild stroke on Sept. 7 and was hospitalized for four days.

"I'm 67 years old, and I just had a chastening experience," he said. "One does not ignore these things."

The radio show, he said, "is essentially a live, acoustic music variety show. I think that in its essence, it has very little to do with Lake Wobegon, very little to do with Guy Noir. I would love to see it continue, and I think I would be a great producer. I think I'd be a better producer than a host. So I would love to produce a successor show."

Five days after being released from the hospital, Keillor was hard at work Wednesday, recording an audio book for his upcoming comic novel, "A Christmas Blizzard," and planning the fall premiere of "A Prairie Home Companion" on Sept. 26.

Retirement at this time is not an option, he said.

"I did have a couple of old friends who made sincere all-out attempts to persuade me to retire," Keillor said. "I appreciated that. I thought it was very good of them. One of them had retired, and another one had not but would like to.

"They drew a beautiful picture of a beautiful life, and I listened to it with great interest. But it just didn't seem to be my life. So I thanked them very much and decided I would not cancel or postpone the opening of the 'Prairie Home' season."

Keillor said his doctors have not instructed him to scale back his activities.

"Prairie Home" premiered in 1974 and now airs on 590 public-radio stations, reaching an audience of 4 million per week. Keillor has served as host and primary writer throughout the show's 35 years. He also reads the daily "Writer's Almanac" for National Public Radio, writes a weekly syndicated column (which appears in the Star Tribune's Sunday Op/Ex section) and has written four books this year.

Keillor said he is ready to "take a little rest from writing fiction. I'm contracted to write one skinny book. Maybe I'll have it start with the narrator suffering a stroke.

"A man's life is focused, so what do you do, how do you want to live your life now that mortality has tapped you on your shoulder? I'm not sure I have anything interesting to say about that."

What Keillor won't say is "yes" to every appearance request. He has postponed lectures in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Nevada and said that "if the New York Philharmonic calls me and wants me to come back and do a show, well, I've already done two with them, and that's enough.

"Now if I'm offered a part in Meryl Streep's next movie as her boyfriend, I would not turn that down."

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643