It’s fair to say that I have a side that is prudent and a side that is not.
The most successful stuff is sold to you as indispensable social information. The message in the music is, ‘We are terribly, terribly slick and suave, and if you listen to us, you can probably get a leg up in society, too.’
I spent most of the eighties, most of my life, riding around in somebody else’s car, in possession of, or ingested of, something illegal, on my way from something illegal to something illegal with many illegal things happening all around me.
At university, I had been obsessed with reading about the lives of Rimbaud and Baudelaire, and I was steeped in the crazy poets, and I came to view my early subjects through that prism.
I have no idea why a guy would bring a jar of peanut butter to a concert.
And for so long, I had thought if I was going to write a song, or get “into” something, I had to at least smoke a joint or something. And that didn’t work anymore. Once I was fairly well cleaned out, even a little bit of a drug getting into my work threw me off kilter.
And if somebody’s going to produce me, they should be producing my sound for me. And that’s something I have to come up with myself.
I feel a great comfort and relief knowing that there are others who lived and died and thought and fought so long ago; I feel less tyrannized by the present day.
I thought, “Wow, it sounds really stoned anyway.” It sounded good to me. I found out that there was a lot in there. what all this comes down to is I was just trying to get in touch with myself. And I met some interesting people in New York who weren’t in show business. I even got to know my dentist.
The nut of the thing is that if what you make is hard like a diamond, you can put it anywhere. You can put it up your and it will still be beautiful.
Basically, I’m a musical vocalist, but I do voiceover stuff as a sideline, like plumbing or something.
How am I going to listen to that horrible noise I make without a gram of coke and a couple of double Jack Daniels?
You know, I’m fifty-two now and I call myself a singer. Before I kick it I want to be able to carry a tune in a living room if called upon. Of course, mine come out all dark and twisted and weird.
I never believed that U2 wanted to save the whales. I don’t believe that The Beastie Boys are ready to lay it down for Tibet.
As society has changed, what had formerly been unacceptable has become colourful.
I think that all the years of exposure to amps and electricity has altered my body chemistry.
I was who I was in high school in accordance with the rules of conduct for a normal person, like obeying your mom and dad. Then I got out of high school and moved out of the house, and I just started, for lack of a better term, running free.
I’m a little bit damaged in about 15 different ways, and it’s been nice that no particular damaged area has become a major issue. I’m a more than moderately healthy 65-year-old male who has gotten away with a lot of stuff.
I have a hot memory, but I know I’ve forgotten many things, too, just squashed things in favor of survival.
Musical types tend to combine the burden of the author with the burden of the actor.