You just went up and started playing, the audience got into it, and it was just a great high experience. That's what I kind of invented with "Mas Tequila" in Cabo.

The reason my voice is sounding more passionate is because I'm singing directly from the heart.

I've always been into writing love songs.

I had been reading this book about Zen Koan philosophy, and it was talking about the right here and the right now, and how important it is, and I was really trying to get there in my life.

I looked at Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the boys up there thinking, I want to be that.

That song ["Don't Tell Me"] didn't take us anywhere, and I know why now. It wasn't what Van Halen fans wanted. It showed the darkness of Van Halen, and basically the end of the band.

The downloads, the licensing, commercials, radio - it's made me more money than any song I've ever written, and it only went to No. 26. It wasn't a big hit at all. But it's a career song ["I Can't Drive 55"].