There are people who are like monkeys in a cage just hitting the coke button. They don't really get that for [musicians and artists] to do these things, they have to fund them. They have to have something to pay the rent.

But I'm a hot-blooded Italian by nature. Whatever the situation you present, I'm going to make something out of it.

Prescott National Forest is right on the edge of my home in Arizona.

There's conflict in everything, just trying to buy a used car you deal with people that you don't want to deal with, you know, that's just the way of life, nothing stops changing, you're always going to have the conflict till your last breath, I mean on your deathbed, arguing with the doctor who's going to pay the bill, you know, it's just the reality of it, so none of that ever goes away.

And if you don't live, you have nothing to write about.

Whenever you try to work through the things that we're trying to work through, that we're addressing, it ends up looking negative. Our goal is nonjudgment, nonfiltered acceptance of everything. So much of our background collectively, especially in the United States, is denying and suppressing and disowning a lot of negativity and the darker areas. You can become swallowed up in it. It's cancerous. The goal should be to define acceptance for everything. To try and consider every aspect. To try to look into the shadows, as well as the light.

I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself.