There was this moment in 2003 when I was asked to do a fundraiser for someone who was speaking out against the Iraq war when nobody was. I said, "I will do a fundraiser for that guy." And then my friend John Hall, from the band Orleans...He ran for Congress in my district and won. I did a bunch of fundraisers for him.

I'm amazed at the adolescent nature of some of the religious fanatics in our government. And they're full of double standards.

Everyone has to decide how they're going to appear in their lives, how they're going to put themselves out there to the world.

There was one tour where I thought, "If I can't get this feeling back of being excited to be on the stage, then I will quit." Because I have friends who have dialed it in and I watch their concerts and shake my head. I'm sure the audience can tell, too.

We all do the wrong thing. And then we have to wake up the next morning and live with the fact that we have done things that are wrong.

I remember doing "As Cool As I Am" and Steve Miller, the producer, saying "I really hear a drum loop here. I want to play it for you." When I wrote it, I thought, "This isn't going to sound very folky. I don't think it's going to go with mandolins and banjos." Then he played the loop for me and it sounded right.

As I said in one of my songs, we're still abolishing slavery, but nobody says it's a good thing. Nobody justifies it.