I was living on the wrong side of the tracks in Evanston, Illinois, in a home for boys. We had these Jackson 5 records. I really related to their voices – they were about my age, but they were doing it.
After the Ramones, it was more about new wave for me than punk.
If I’m not on tour or in the studio, I’m in nature somewhere, usually some kind of ocean. Playing music has afforded me that. It’s not lost on me that it’s a tremendous opportunity to be able to spend your life being surrounded by nature.
You can’t be perfect. You can’t be the perfect father. You can’t be the perfect singer.
No matter how good you are, at some point your kids are gonna have to create their own independence and think that Mom and Dad aren’t cool, just to establish themselves. That’s what adolescence is about. They’re gonna go through that no matter what.
That’s part of the curse: If you’re gonna play the song, you better play it. I’ve tried to phone in ‘Jeremy’ a few times, and it’s tough. It doesn’t work.
I’ve never been a calm, midrange type person.
Are you woman enough to be my man?
I believe in the power of music. To me, it isn’t just a fad. This is a positive thing.
That makes it even more offensive to me that she’s interested in our band and she did something for Slaughter.
At a certain point, you realize you have a responsibility more behind yourself and your need for adrenaline. I’m glad I did things in my 20s that were more reckless.
So my one kid’s 4, my other kid’s 4 months, I’m 44, Barack Obama is the 44th president – it’s all lining up nicely here.
I’m trying to break any chain of negative parenting that I might have survived.
I think celebrities suck.
I don’t know how people do it these days – paparazzi and that kind of thing. That’s something I can’t even imagine.
I just finished touring, and I’m on a detox thing. It’s a heavy detox, so nothing in my belly except water, salt, and cayenne pepper.
I just think that all of us in this room should have a voice in how the USA is represented. And he don’t allow us our voice, that’s all I’m saying.
Our influences are who we are. It’s rare that anything is an absolutely pure vision; even Daniel Johnston sounds like the Beatles. And that’s the problem with the bands I’m always asked about, the ones derivative of the early Seattle sound. They don’t dilute their influences enough.
I had actually been going to Hawaii for quite a while before I ever picked up the uke. I think with anything new you’re going to get more enjoyment out of it if it comes to you quickly, and the uke facilitates that.
Competition is healthy, if you can turn it off and on. When someone gets too cocky in victory, that can ruin the positive aspect.
The nice thing about money is that you can do good things with it. I still feel like if something needs to be done or we need to raise money for someone on death row, we can find ways to do it.