Then it evolved into more of a ballad style singer/songwriter thing. And there was a conflict in trying to merge the two styles with the same band behind me. 'Cause the musicians that I would need to do ballad-oriented tunes would require musicians who were more into jazz.

I think we're going a bit too fast at the minute. The rate we're going is like we're going over the edge of the hill.

Once you start to analyze it [Joyous Sound], you've completely lost it. That one just came.

These days politics, religion, media seem to get all mixed up. Television became the new religion a long time back and the media has taken over.

I realized that what I was looking for was doing collaborations with other people - people who can play a ballad, rock, jazz. I was looking for more co-op type things than what I had been doing, which had been completely my own trip.

The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport.

That song [You Got To Make It Through The World] came from a vibe I picked up from an old blues singer named Bo Carter. My lady was making a film as a thesis for U.C.L.A. and she wanted me to write a song to depict this character. The movie had something to do with bootlegging and stuff like that. I found this Bo Carter record and he was just saying something about making it to the woods or something like that.