I grew up the son of a businessman. And I didn't get into music to be a businessman.
If critics were harder on the musicians that they love, there would be better songs. But as they grow older and they lose their talent, critics refuse to let them know that and protect them, and they get to the point where they put out music that just isn't up to the levels where they've already been.
It must be very strange to live in the world of Willie Nelson or Bruce Springsteen or Pearl Jam. I don't know what kind of handle they have on their own loss of talent.
I heard Springsteen was an unhappy person. I don't know, I haven't read his biography. But a lot of people in my field should be a lot more unhappy than they are.
I can't imagine putting my name on a t-shirt. For someone to wear my name? Me? It's ridiculous.
I don't have time for language poetry anymore. I don't want to throw people off anymore.
The world of commerce is a kind of a purgatory itself.
Yeah, once the song is written, it just complexifies the profile of it to have the music and the words at odds. It comes naturally to me. A lot of my music is like that.
I don't have any desire to be in a relationship with anyone else, and I do feel like I'm on the other side of my career of being a Lothario.
In the beginning, it was meant to be like a faceless art piece. Then I did the first record and it received enough notice to satisfy my needs. I questioned the procedure out of fear. The Silver Jews was never meant to be recreated live.
I bought a guitar when I was twenty. But I didn't write a song until I was 25 or 26. I never learned to play others songs. I learned to play my own songs while I was learning how to make them better.
I was 29 or 30 when I felt sure of what I was doing, but not fully identifying as a songwriter until I was 37.
Piece by piece I sent my first book of poems to American Poetry Review and was rejected one by one.
If I believed in fate I'd be very curious why I picked the name Silver Jews.
Intellectuals and creative people, once they start talking about God they get put into this other category: 'I don't go to people's music like that to understand my life.'
You don't meet too many actors in Nashville.
I have bad vision, but it's not distorted. It's low power!
I don't have room in my mind to think about musical equipment.
When art is about craftsmanship, then guys like me don't make it as artists.
Lyrically, country music is the most satisfying music for me.
