Martin Scorsese has been reflecting on Vinyl, the 1970s-set music industry drama that he executive produced with HBO. The series had a huge $100 million budget but failed to attract enough viewers, so it was cancelled by HBO after two seasons.

Chatting to The Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese has spoken about this “tragic” end for the show. He even raised the idea that Vinyl might have done better if he had directed every episode. In reality, he only shot the pilot.

Here’s what Scorsese has said on the cancellation:

“It was ultimately tragic for me because we tried for one year. I did the pilot. We tried for one year with HBO, but we couldn’t get the creative elements together. It was something that I realized, in order to make it right…I think I would have had to direct every episode and be there for the three to four years.”

Of course, we’ll never know for sure whether the show would have done better if Scorsese had spent entire seasons calling the shots as its director. It would have looked nice, certainly, but would the ratings have been that different? Who knows.

Either way, it’s interesting to hear the legendary producer/director talking so candidly about a project. We’ll be sure to keep you posted if we hear more.