Musically, I just think in terms of what's next. There's a lot of things I've always dreamed of doing, and I hope I get to them before I get too deaf.
Kevin ShieldsA lot of people at my school could play the "Stairway to Heaven" guitar solo, but they couldn't play three chords of a Ramones song if their life depended on it because they didn't have the strength or ability to do it. But all I did was practice that, and the style that I eventually fell into is more focused than people would actually imagine.
Kevin ShieldsI don't feel bound by the ebbs and flows of musical trends, or what's happening with new music in general. I always had a fascination with that sound. It's a mixture of the idea that something could be going wrong along with the idea of bending constrained, Westernized music out of tune. But because I wasn't copying an idea, and it just came from somewhere inside me, it felt like a birth of something that most people didn't understand at the time.
Kevin ShieldsI do need to loosen up a bit, and that usually does come with old age. That's the intention.
Kevin Shields