A David Chase exclusive

Keeping his contact with the public showrt and sweet, David Chase has apparently decided that he didn't need to do the whole publicity thing on Good Morning America and Larry King. His show didn't need the hype. So he decided to give only one post-finale interview and that was to the Newark Star Ledger. But, elusive as always, he declines to explain that final scene.

"I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there," he says of the final scene.

"No one was trying to be audacious, honest to god," he adds. "We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people's minds, or thinking, 'Wow, this'll (tick) them off.' People get the impression that you're trying to (mess) with them and it's not true. You're trying to entertain them."

It's left up to us. So, I'll stick with my interpretation, which also happens to be what the journalist doing the interview thinks was going on. I just don't buy that the screen goes black because Tony has been killed. With Phil dead, who is it out there who is ordering a hit on him? Chase wouldn't have an unmotivated killing that he didn't clue the viewers into.

There are a few other tidbits in the interview. He knocks down the theory, that I've seen several places that all the people in the diner are people from Tony's past all with motives to kill him. And he talks about why Steve Perry's voice is the last we hear.

One detail about the final scene that he'll discuss, however tentatively: the selection of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the song on the jukebox.

"It didn't take much time at all to pick it, but there was a lot of conversation after the fact. I did something I'd never done before: in the location van, with the crew, I was saying, 'What do you think?' When I said, 'Don't Stop Believin',' people went, 'What? Oh my god!' I said, 'I know, I know, just give a listen,' and little by little, people started coming around."