There are times when an artist will cover another's song, and the rare thing happens that it somehow eclipses the original. Whether it injects some new, unseen meaning, or reinvents it sonically into something entirely different. Jeff Buckley's 'Hallelujah' drew praise from Leonard Cohen, and Trent Reznor likened Johnny Cash's break-taking cover of 'Hurt' to losing his girlfriend – saying that it just wasn't his song anymore. So what if one of rock's most incendiary, influential pioneers took on an entire record of covers, among them the Rolling Stones' 'Gimme Shelter', Neil Young's 'Helpless' and no less than that minor hit, Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'? What happens is Patti Smith's new album, Twelve.

"When I finally hang up, I'm going to put on my Wagner record and get a book and go to bed. That's what I'm going to be doing," is what Patti Smith says when I ask her to tell me about her life in New York, where she has lived on and off for the better part of 40 years. It's getting to be after 11pm, and Patti has been talking to me through the tedium of a cold she hasn't been able to shake. But an evening of press commitments hasn't dulled her enthusiasm for a wide-ranging conversation about everything from her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to her awe for the way the Web has changed the record industry (in her opinion, much for the better), to how it felt to play Madison Square Garden, finally, supporting U2 on their Vertigo tour. "I loved playing Madison Square Garden. No band had ever let us open them, so I thought I'd never get to play there. So I was really happy that U2 asked me to play. It wasn't intimidating to me, we've played much bigger places, but never in New York. So it was nice."

Twelve was, like her 1975 punk blueprint Horses, recorded at Jimi Henrdix's Electric Ladyland Studios in NYC. Featuring guests Flea on bass, Television guitarist Tom Verlaine and Sam Shepard (on banjo), Twelve is also and all-star family affair, with Smith's son Jackson and daughter Jesse also playing in the band. I ask her what prompted her choice for a covers album, and what it was about the songs she included that appealed to her to interpret.

"The first song that I absolutely wanted to do was Jimi Hendix's 'Are You Experienced?', and it was the first one that we did. And also we did early, 'Changing of the Guard', the Bob Dylan song. And 'Teen Spirit', which is a very difficult song to do. So those were the first three that we did. The album is a combination of some very, you know, premeditated songs and a bunch of songs that are just there by happenstance," like the birth of Helpless which was the last cut done for the record at the end of a long night, "and it just came out so pretty."

Covers have always been a big and important staple of the Patti Smith band's live arsenal. So while the choice of a covers record so late in her career might seem strange to people not so well acquainted with her live output, Twelve is far from a desperate stab at staying relevant to the kids. "My records are sometimes demanding, and they're not always accessible to people. It's not that I necessarily want them to be like that, it's just the way that I am. But I always wanted to connect with people, but I haven't yet done that in a successful way. You know, really a global way. So I'm hoping with this record, that because the music is at least familiar, that it will give people a friendly entrance. Not that they'll get to know me, but they'll get to know these songs, and their messages. And maybe, they will get to know me a little better."

Talking about her wild version of Teen Spirit with its adlibbed free associating verse at the end, she says, "you know, that song is not about teenagers, it's about Kurt Cobain (who was hugely influenced by Patti's music and her politics.) It's about all the things that he suffered. It's about the pain of being an artist. It's about all the guilt and the suffering and the pain and the self loathing, and just, conflict within him. And you know, people feel that at any age. And I really deeply related to the song, because all artists and people and general, feel these things. Emotional conflict and people trying to comprehend their worth is a universal suffering."

I ask Patti finally, who she listens to today, and she gets onto a great rave about the way that the current crop of musicians are using the internet as a means of communication and circumventing major labels to deal their music direct to their fans. "You know, I love REM. But who I listen to, doesn't matter. There is a new guard, and they're inventing themselves. It's not about me, it's up to them now."

The Patti Smith band will be touring for all of 2007, and have plans slated to come to Australia near the end of the year, for the first time since supporting Bob Dylan in 1997 "so we're due to come back." We are currently crossing all our fingers and toes.