I love to rock, but it's liberating not to always have to keep up with the freight train that is the Old 97's

Seeing that the 97's are a democracy through and through, inevitably, some of these tons of songs I write will get vetoed. The first time that happened (and every time thereafter), I consoled myself with the thought that sooner or later I'd make a solo record

I love to rock, but it's liberating not to always have to keep up with the freight train that is the Old 97's

I made The Instigator while I was homeless as a result of 9/11, and there was some stuff on there that was really raw and directly out of that experience

Yesterday I wrote the majority of a song called 'Burn the Nightclub Down' which was about kind of driving into Cleveland full of dread at the prospect of playing at this night club and actually just the night before I had called my girlfriend whose birthday it was. And it's her birthday and here I am on the road in some hellhole in Ann Arbor in Michigan.