You can be for something and still be damaged by it.

I've always thought preaching to the converted is just kind of futile and silly.

I feel like, as a people, we're sort of stumbling in the dark right now.

This time, we're living in such a crazy moment in history. People still write and talk about Watergate, which was such a huge, looming backdrop when I was coming of age and when I was a kid growing up. I think we're living in one of those times right now where, in 20 years, people will be writing and talking about it.

When Adam's House Cat broke up in 1991, which was Cooley and my band for six years, I put my entire life, heart, and soul into that thing. I mean everything. I ended up getting divorced over it, and then the band broke up and I was left with nothing. I had nothing to show for six years of my life except for a finished record that still hasn't come out. And I went through a pretty deep, dark, two-year depression after that, [which] probably resulted in some of the earlier songs that became Drive-By Trucker songs, for that matter.

I never want to be that guy spouting off my political views. I mean, they're pretty well known, and it certainly comes out. If something's bugging my ass on any particular day, I'm probably going to say something about it, but I'm not going to go on a tirade. I dislike George Bush as much as probably anybody on earth could, but having said that...I've said it, you know? It's not like I'm going to change anybody's mind.

Paste may be the last great American music magazine left.