For someone who's had the level of success I've had, there's been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating.

I don't know if God would agree with me, but believing in God is kind of unimportant when compared to believing in yourself. Because if you go with the idea that God gave you a mind and an ability to judge things, then he would want you to believe in yourself and not worry about believing in him. By believing in yourself you will come to the conclusion that will point to something.

Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.

Rock & roll is not about what you play, it's about how you play it.

I grew up in the suburbs and basically associate the suburbs with cultural death.

I don't think people are fans of me because I wrote hit songs. I think they're fans because I'm a lunatic or a weirdo. The hit songs came out of my idiosyncratic personality, not the other way around.

If you don't have some sort of belief system by which to center your life, it's hard sometimes to understand why you would put up with your family.