Bob Dylan led me to this kind of music - and it's his and ours. And it's nobody else's.

I see myself as a traditionalist. I like traditional things. I like things of substance and value that have been proven. Conceptually, as the songs started to come together, I followed that lead, which is the language I work in.

The trouble, dollIs not moving mountains, butDigging the ground that you're on

I'm realistic. Getting to everybody is not the goal here. The people you can affect in any way - that's who you want to get to.

I'm waiting for my kids to grow up and get into the Offspring and look at me like I'm a total candy-ass.

Those things interest me a lot in songwriting - the human nature of how people think, and the muck that we wind up in.

My songs have always had hope and perseverance in them - I never write songs that have no escape hatch, no positivity.