Attack your instruments. Don't let them attack you.

Set lists are tough because you come up with this structure of how the songs are going to go from one to the next, but at the same time, you have to be spontaneous and take requests and change the set list at the drop of a hat.

Madisyn [Shipman] was great. She's a really talented kid. We got along great. It was fun, in between scenes, I'd pull out my iPod and show her different old rock 'n' roll and punk stuff, and she was really into it.

I don't want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward.

A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It's below the radar. The beauty of it is that you're not supposed to always know. It's subterranean.

In one of the scenes [in the Ordinary World], you can see a little cameo of my son, who's in the party. You've just gotta bring it all back home.

We never fit in completely to [the punk] scene because we were writing love songs that were heartfelt and endearing. Some of the punks didn't know what to make of us, but I finally realized that was what made us punk. We sang what we meant, from the heart, and didn't worry about what anyone was going to think.