All my life I just wanted to be a beatnik. Meet all the heavies, get stoned, get laid, have a good time. That's all I ever wanted. Except I knew I had a good voice and I could always get a couple of beers off of it. All of a sudden someone threw me in this rock 'n' roll band. They threw these musicians at me, man, and the sound was coming from behind. The bass was charging me. And I decided then and there that that was it. I never wanted to do anything else. It was better than it had been with any man, you know. Maybe that's the trouble.

Unfortunately, when hope diminishes, the hate is often turned most bitterly toward those who originally built up the hope. In all the speaking that I have done in the United States before varied audiences, including some hostile whites, the only time that I have been booed was one night in a Chicago mass meeting by some young members of the Black Power movement.

If I could go back in time and see any band, It would be Link Wray and the Raymen.

When we were a band in the mid-2000s, MySpace and PureVolume were really important to us. I remember Arctic Monkeys happening there.

Anyone can make something with technology, but we've been a band for 20 years-it isn't algorithmic.

There was never a jostling for position about who was going to lead the band. The guys believe me, we love each other, they trust me and I trust them. They trust in me to know what I'm doing.