The audacious French performance artist Philippe Petit probably isn’t as widely known as he ought to be. If the name rings a bell, it might be thanks to the 2015 based-on-a-true-story thriller The Walk starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. But if you’re intimately familiar with his work, it’s likely because you saw 2008’s Oscar-winning documentary, Man On Wire, based on the 2002 book of the same name that told the story of his rule-breaking tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. Specifically on August 7, 1974.

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Petit will mark the 50th anniversary of that daring feat, which is just one of his many unauthorized highwire performances, by walking the width of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights, Manhattan—just 20 feet in the air this time versus a quarter mile up. British pop singer Sting, Petit’s friend of 35 years, will debut a song he wrote for the artist at the two-day performance titled TOWERING!! (with two exclamation points; “You see in them the two towers,” Petit told Observer).

According to Petit, there will be nineteen scenes in Towering!!, including an arrest scene, “which will be almost comic, Keystone Kops, you know?” The artist, who turns 75 this year, still loves living life on the edge. Age hasn’t changed his approach to performance art, and he spoke to us about passion, his upcoming autobiography and refusing to grow old.

Observer: I see you as a performance artist more than anything.

Petit: Well, that’s what I am.

Right, but do you feel like you ever get miscategorized?

Absolutely. In this country, people are very quick to classify me as what I am not—people say I am a daredevil, a stuntman, a record breaker. All that I am not interested in. “Artist” is my title, and I write in the sky.

You held a press conference on the 80th floor of Three World Trade to announce your performance next month. What did it feel like to be back up among the skyscrapers where you began in 1974?

I was very excited, to tell you the truth. To have this gathering of friends and press and to vividly remember, in a little speech, all my work over 50 years ago and to actually do that on the 80th floor of Three World Trade Center with a magnificent view of the new tower and the footprint of the beloved towers… it was a great event.

Barbara Tober was there, right? A great philanthropist.

Yes, she was there and was very happy to be in the sky with me. I love her so much. Is she a good friend of yours? She’s a new friend, but yes, and she’s such a lively person, you know, a huge supporter of the arts and she’s wonderful. She’s like me. She refused to grow old.

In what ways do you feel that you refuse to grow old?........

© Observer