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.

There's only one thing that's certainAnd that's everybody, everybody's hurting

I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively-and there were a lot of choices-writing songs was king.

The songs I write should only be gauged by what other writers or peers are doing today. If the barometer for all songwriters was to match his body of work, then anyone you might mention alive or dead is a failure. But I've learned to not be too hung up on what's fair or not fair.

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.

I do like a song that can look good on a page without even being sung. I edit and edit and edit.