The song is ubiquitous and millions know its chorus by heart — “Bye bye Miss American Pie …”

(Did you read that, or sing it?)

On Nov. 11, American troubadour Don McLean will sing that and other hits in a performance at Struthers Library Theatre at 8 p.m. Tickets are on sale on the theater’s website.

In a phone call with The Era, McLean talked about his start in music and how much he appreciates that people find joy in his music.

“I started singing like every kid,” he said, adding with a chuckle that he thought he was pretty talented even at 5 years of age. “I could sing and my mother, she had me when she was in her 40s, she was delighted I could sing.”

As he grew up, other mothers started noticing, too.

“All the mothers would call her up and say, ‘You should get him on television,’” McLean recounted, adding, “These were women who had nothing to do socially with my mother.”

His parents were supportive. “My mother encouraged me, not like a stage mother, but she encouraged me. And when I got a hold of a guitar, well …

“I fell in love with Buddy Holly, he was playing an electric guitar,” McLean said, “and Elvis, he was playing a Martin guitar with a funky pickup. I thought, ‘Gee that looks great. I’d love to be able to pick that up and play that thing.’ I was probably 12 at that point.”

A chance came to do just that.

“It was just happenstance, a guy I knew said, ‘I have a guitar and I can play it too,” McLean said, adding he was skeptical at first. “He showed me E and A and B7 and I was off to the races.”

He mentioned his son, who wanted to learn, too.

“He liked Meat Loaf and I said ‘You can play that on the guitar,’ and I showed him E and A and B7 and he was off,” McLean said with a laugh.

As for himself, McLean said his decades-long career doesn’t mean it’s time to sit back and relax.

“I like to be busy,” he said.

With some incredible songs like “American Pie” and “Vincent” under his belt, does McLean spend a lot of time songwriting?

“I don’t really like writing songs that much,” he said. “Once an idea starts it won’t let me go until I finish it. I’m kind of held hostage until I get it done.”

“American Pie” took 10 years to write. “It was something I was thinking about constantly.”

And when one song is done, he explained, “Then I have to do five more for an album, so it’s an all-day-all-the-time thing until finally you have a satisfactory number of songs.”

And it can be a precarious undertaking, too.

“There are so many ways and so many times you can lose the potential of a song,” he said, adding that leads to making a “crummy record.”

With McLean’s ability to tell a story in song, in different lyric styles and melodies, his work has stood the test of time as a soundtrack for generations. For an entertainer, how does knowing that feel?

“It feels nice,” he said. “It feels very good to know I’ve given something to people that they enjoy, and it’s one little positive element in their lives and I hope it follows through in my albums and I hope it adds something to their lives.”

At his upcoming Warren show, McLean said the audience will hear the songs they love — because he loves them too. “I’m not one of those guys who resents what made him successful,” he said. “I like the songs I’m known for. They’ve lasted a long time.”