But then when he left, I realized that it was harder to write songs and feel spiritually connected to art and music as a band. When he came back I felt it again, instantaneously.

We set out to write 13 songs. But as has been the case every time we've tried to do that, we ended up with 30-some-odd songs. The difference this time was we ended up liking all of those songs and finishing all of those songs, and it actually became a very difficult process to even whittle it down to 28.

As a father now, I wouldn't do what my dad did, because it left me feeling emotionally unstable as a kid. But he didn't do the things he did out of selfishness or malice.

Every true artist is at war with the world.

Music itself was color-blind but the media and the radio stations segregate it based on their perceptions of the artists.

What I've realized over the years is that I have some pretty good friends.