With Master Ren, if I'd tell him I can't do that and he'd say, yes you can, and it turns out I very much can do it.

People didn't know certain things about me, which... I was out of creative writing class in school, Syracuse University; had a B.A. in English and wanted to write the great American novel but I also loved rock and roll. I was in bar bands all through college, playing fraternities and have to know all the songs in the top 10. That kind of thing.

In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle.

My God is rock'n'roll. It's an obscure power that can change your life. The most important part of my religion is to play guitar.

I can concentrate on my art.

How could you even dream or think something of someone who is as uncommercial as I am?

People can vote for who ever they want. That doesn't mean I have to go near them.