A true musician, like Johnny Cash, should be able to walk into a room with nothing but an instrument and capture people’s attention for two hours.
My first favorite band that made music important to me was the Beatles. I was a little kid. I didn’t know who was singing what song or who wrote what song.
Once you sit in front of people and start playing songs, it’s all on you. No matter what happens, it’s entirely your responsibility the entire time. I like that intensity.
Radio and TV can still push a band, but things need to be shaken up. There is the Internet, but mostly what I see there is little kids on YouTube playing music.
An acoustic show is all about you, and any little nuance or mistake is amplified.
I got in touch with the creative process between the age of 14 and 16, mainly because I was alone so much.
There wasn’t a key moment when I knew I wanted to quit.
To me, music shouldn’t be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you’re sitting in a room, writing songs, it’s a completely different process. It’s a completely different place. It’s a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.
I’m not usually in a talkative mode.
I’m looking California and feeling Minnesota.
I think that one of the main privileges of what I do, which I am just starting to learn, is to have the ability to travel all over the world and experience different cultures.
I’ve had a long career and I want to continue to have a long career. The way to do that is not to go away.
I play Texas Hold’em on my Blackberry. I have amassed a fortune on that. I have almost 30 million dollars from playing. It is unreal.
People don’t realize how much fun it is to be depressed.
At the end of the day it’s the fans who make you who you are.
Friends of mine that are from here or that have spent time here have told me about Israel and how warm the people are and that I should someday come here.
If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving.
I think it’s important for fans to know that but if I’m doing something that inspires me musically then I think it will inspire someone else too.
It’s great when you play to an audience that knows the words to all your songs, and sings them back to you.
Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth. We’re more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage.
I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That’s not gone away.