I work very hard on getting the songs as direct and examined as I can before I go in the studio.
We'd have made more, but I kept forgetting to write songs down.
I enjoyed hearing people do their own songs. I became attracted to singer-songwriters. I became interested in them as people; was curious about what they wanted to say.
Singing your own songs is all about individual expression.
I've been lucky to be able to make the records I've wanted to make. The record company has never pressured me to cut certain songs.
I'm not going to hurt anybody other than that dick who keeps writing songs about me.
Puffy produced four of the tracks on the album. Those are the four songs that are collaborations between Puffy and me. And he gives me my space to work even when we work together, like with my producer and my vocal coach.
He learned through the way that my father and I felt about his songs, his country songs, that they were great songs. And then he went out and sang them for the audiences that we found, and he found a tremendous reaction to that.
I knew Bobby Dylan back in the days when he lived in the village. He used to come and see me and sing songs for me, saying they ought to go into my next collected book on American folk music.
I write most of my own lyrics for my album and I am helping to produce some of the songs as well.
Dweezil and I are going on tour with the band probably starting in the middle of February for a month probably playing a few songs from my new record and then I'll continue on after that tour.
A friend of mine once told me that I can't screw up when I play my own music. I also take voice lessons, play other peoples' songs out of music books, and occasionally figure out how to play other people's music from records. This keeps my ears, fingers, and mind working.
My overnight success was really 15 years in the making. I'd been writing songs since I was 6 and playing in bands and performing since I was 14.
When I'm old I shall give up writing the big stuff and shall wander round the park thinking of songs.
I don't wanta do any Blues or any sad songs.