It wouldn't interest me to try to sound like Cop or something. It would be silly and soul-crushing.

I'm pretty confident that people are going to come along for the ride. If they don't, tough.

I got involved, for the most part, in the actual song construction, lyrics even. I didn't want to write the lyrics, but if there was a howler in there, I definitely pointed it out. Just trying to bring it up to a higher level. Of course, after a couple records, people get fed up with that. That's fine.

I really wanted to get to the animal core of rock music and eliminate anything that wasn't necessary.

I used to routinely break my ribs doing stupid things onstage, but I have a healthy fear of breaking my bones now.

The music takes you. It has to be alive. It's like you hammer something, and the way it happens to bleed leads you into new directions.

Many of the songs were written as a way of paying tribute to specific people, but in the end the songs took on a life of their own and I didn't worry about accuracy or biographical truth, so it's not a problem.