I play like I always used to, with no agenda. And, every once in a while, I will play something I really hadn't thought about or even intended to play. And I'll go, 'Whoa! What was that?'
New Zealand is in my heart, always.
People are texting and smash into the car in front of them - I think there is some humor in that. And the virtual games. People are playing these virtual games, but they're real - I mean, the people are really playing, but it's not a game.
I enjoy my solo career because I get to play smaller places like clubs and theaters, and the interaction with the audience is much higher quality. It also sounds better than a baseball stadium. Everybody has a good seat, and I don't have to play a specific part like I do in the Eagles.
L.A. is kind of flat these days; I guess Austin and other places are like that now. But that's what I wanted to get across: You could be as crazy as you wanted, and that was OK. You didn't have to be good; people would still come and hear you.
'Turn to Stone' was written about the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War and the protesting that was going on and all of that. It's a song about frustration. Also, I attended Kent State.
There's a lot of politics in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There's a lot us artists would change about the induction ceremony and who they pick.
I was a student at Kent State University in May of 1970. I was also a musician in a regionally popular band called the James Gang. I was still going to class and stuff, but I was in and out because we were playing a lot.
'Band Played On' is a good one. Barbara Orbison, who was Roy's wife, was involved in publishing in Nashville because she oversaw Roy's publishing, and she had a company in Nashville. She had a whole bunch of writers assembled, and they got together every day and wrote, and they write for everybody in Nashville.
In the very early Seventies and the very late Sixties, nobody out here was originally from L.A.
I've been able to meet a lot of vets at different functions and events, and it just hit me that I should step it up a notch, and I have a lot of peers who feel the same way.
I've always written observations on the world, and now there's two of them. The virtual world is a new thing, and it doesn't really exist, but people are in it a lot.
I was obsessive-compulsive, and I probably had a little splash of Asperger's in there, but in those days, in 1953, you were just a difficult kid. Attention deficit didn't even exist back then. I really had trouble completing tasks - I couldn't sit still.
A homeless veteran should not have to stand at a freeway exit with a cardboard sign. That's not okay.
People try to function in the real world - the analog world - while they're texting in the digital world, and they run into the car in front of them. It doesn't work to be in both.
I relate with military families and Gold Star families. Gold Star families are families where somebody didn't come home. My father died in 1949. He was a flight instructor in the Army Air Corp.
I love being in a small club where everybody has a good seat, and we don't look like ants. And you can feel the audience, which makes it kind of magical, and I miss that. I guess I have the best of both worlds.
My wife was the part of me that was missing. And I got that whole family that came along with her in the deal. It's an extended family, and they're very close, and it's a dynamic that's never been around me before.
You can work on an album forever, but finishing it is a whole different deal.
The best part of success is that it got me past the basic survival level of existence so that I was comfortable. I didn't have to worry about stuff pertaining to survival. Once that was taken care of, I got the chance sit down and create and work at what I do.
