When I'm onstage, I hope it looks like what I want to see - the lights, the pyro, the band.

I forgive my mom for being a psycho and my dad for being a loser.

I keep interested and I keep my eyes wide open...I try to read as much as possible...try to go to places that are off the beaten path...and I love to listen in on other peoples conversations...all the things that are floating around out there and I regurgitate it with my perspective...lyrically and musically.

I am not a preacher. I don't want to stand on a soapbox and tell people, "Don't drink. Don't use drugs." With my kids, I say "Don't drink. Don't do drugs." But when they turn 21, they can drink. I hope they never use drugs, but people make their own decisions. When they're old enough, they are going to have the chance to make their own decisions. I just hope I have given them enough love and support, and the ability to come and talk to me if they need to.

I have a lot of friends who come from alcoholic families, and they aren't alcoholics, because someone explained it to them. When I was in Washington DC, they really talked about the difference statistically between families that talk about drug addiction and ones that don't. The kids that can say "I see where this is going" have a much better chance of not becoming addicts, because they have been educated.

Darkness can be funny. It can be quirky. There are different ways that that stuff comes out as a creative person. But the actual conflicted, twisted, decaying, rotting soul? That's not me. No more.

There's nothing unique about me as a parent. I am a parent. My kids are kids. We do the best we can do.