It's become uncool to play other people's songs, and that's absurd. It has got to change. It's the reason why everything's so mediocre.

I'm not pretending to be an academic, or to have this down to a science. It's strictly my taste. But there is a connection between everything I play and the sets I put together.

You think your congressman is working all day to get you a job? He may want to. He or she is probably not a bad person. They probably want to do the right thing. But they can't.

I was obsessed with politics in the '80s. I've recovered and I'm feeling much better now, thank you.

We never understood the concept of people going onstage and giving anything less than 100 percent. Maybe that's a blue-collar work ethic, but I call it just ethics.

The quality of our lives is diminished every time we lose a great artist. It's a different world without Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Curtis Mayfield, Brian Jones and the rest.

I have a bigger mission than any kind of specific politics, which is trying to restore the accessibility of rock 'n' roll.