I'm also getting an Ovation Legend, because I like them so much.

I left for the same reasons everyone leaves jobs that are no longer fulfilling their hopes and aspirations. I didn't see myself spending the rest of my life being a strummer for someone else's dreams. Whatever the opposite of regret is best describes how I've always felt about that decision - it opened me up to a million creative opportunities I needed to experience away from the bullshit and distorting mirrors that fame engenders.

When you point your finger 'cause your plan fell through You got three more fingers pointing back at you!

I'm not a collector, however, and I have no desire to own 50 or 60 guitars.

The music you make is shaped by what you play it on ... if you feel that you're not getting enough out of a song, change the instrument - go from an acoustic to an electric or vice versa, or try an open tuning ... do something to shake it up.

While listening, to things like western swing, for instance, I'd work something out in my head, then play it on my National; not the same song, but one that captured the feeling of the original tune.

My idea of heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues.