I wasn’t raised to not write about issues, and I’m just living in really politically charged times. You know, I’d rather write songs about girls, but it’s just hard to do.
I ain’t ever satisfied...
Part of it is, I think, just to let people know you’ve got a record out there and that you’re still alive requires more work than it used to, because the traditional radio, bug chains of record stores, all of that, that doesn’t exist anymore.
My main area of activism is the death penalty, and it will continue to be once this crisis is over with.
Politics and music don’t necessarily go hand in hand. They just do for me...
I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.
The revolution starts now.
What songwriting does better than almost anything is empathy – it’s incredibly empathetic. The reason people sat around in bars when they were bummed out and listened to country songs is because it made them feel better in the long run.
At home, I’m lucky if I can write three or four hours before the phone starts ringing and the kids want to go to soccer.
Funerals are a pagan rite. There’s not any doubt about it.
Sympathetic characters usually have a voice. They usually don’t have any trouble being heard.
If there is such a thing as a workaholic, I’m it, and that’s what passes for leisure.
There’s a long tradition of people from the South living in New York City.
The creative core of New York has never been native New Yorkers; it’s people from all over the world.
I’m constantly warning people that are involved in my life that I can go busk and make a living. I can make my rent in New York City in the subway, I promise, if I’m forced to.
I’m not a Democrat; I’m something well to the left of a Democrat, but I’m just realistic about the system.
Like most kids, I grew up singing ‘This Land Is Your Land’ in grammar school, but with the most radical verses neatly removed. This was before I knew it was a Woody Guthrie song.
My son was diagnosed with autism. He’s OK, he makes eye contact, but he doesn’t talk. He needs eight hours a day of very intensive school, and you wouldn’t even believe me if I told you how much it costs.
San Antonio is like a military town. It’s like literally – when I was growing up there, there were five Air Force bases, plus Fort Sam Houston. I was always sort of near the military.
I don’t type fast. I type with three fingers – two on one hand, and I only get one going on the other. I think my thumb’s in there, but I’m not sure. I may be no better than an orangutan when it comes to that.