making a noise in this world making a noise in this world you can bet your ass, I won't go quietly making a noise in this world.

The rock concert experience for people was really pretty stupid, you know, at the time. People would go to concerts not with the idea of listening at all.

It would be nice to abandon the verse-chorus-bridge structure completely, and make it so none of these things are definable. ... Make up new names for them. Instead of a bridge, you can call it a highway, or an overpass. ... Music should never be harmless. ... I remember from my earliest years, people speaking, you know, in a certain kind of rhythm and telling stories and sharing experiences in a way that was different in Indian country than it was other places. And I was really struck by this and obviously very affected by it, because it's always come out in my songs.

When people get together that come from different musical backgrounds, a lot of times there's is a good ... it's very enjoyable to say somebody, let me turn you on to some things, and the other person does the same thing. And they play you stuff that maybe you weren't that familiar with and likewise.

You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared.

When you make a record, your own record, and you don't even recognize it yourself, it's hard to think if anybody else is going to recognize.

I try not to think the song to death. The main criteria is if it's working on an emotional level.