Being Famous: People expect you to be a certain way and that's kind of a drag because they immediately want to compare you to people through generalzations. As a person, I'm pretty low key; as a band we're pretty low key. We're into stuff that I guess is not really popular. We're not really into drugs and we love our fans and we're not into being stars or trying to be somebody we're not. That's kind of hard because people want to throw stuff on you and everybody thinks you're all about money and yes, we make a good living. I'm not going to lie to you and say we don't, but it's not about that for us. It's really about making our generation better and making people really appreciate music on a spiritual level.
Staying True to Yourself: There's a lot of people out there who really want to steer you the other way- who worship the almighty dollar and aren't really good role models for kids or anybody for that matter. So it is hard and people try to take it away from you but you have to remember at the end of the day, how you got there was from hard work and the love of music.
Trusting the Right People: I think you get really good at being able to decipher who's for real and who's not. I think I'm pretty good at it. There's just a certain people, you can tell whether or not they're for real. It's something that you need to focus on. You know you want to be loved for who you are and not what you are. And, let's face it, that's the bottom line.
Rock Stars: I think a rock star is a persona of being something you're not and I'm not really like that. I consider myself a songwriter first. We sat down the other night and tried to think about old school rock stars and who was around and whom we considered really a rock star. The only person we could think of who was a true rock star was Lenny Kravitz. I think he's one of the last of the rock stars who'll withstand the tests of times and he's proven it in his career. He's done amazing things as a solo artist and a rock star.
Groupies: Let's look at the word. There's been a lot of bad connotations for it and it's really kind of a drag because we have fans that travel around the country to see us and they follow us to shows and they fly out. I don't know where I'd be without those people. But there are bad people out there. I think the groupie is essential and will always be here in rock 'n' roll. I don't see it as a bad thing as long as they're being cool to fans and not hurting anybody. I'm hip to the whole thing. But there's a lot of hurt people, a lot of disturbed girls who will do things that aren't so good for the love of trying to get bext to a band, I don't really endorse any of that.
Fame Can Be Lonely: Really the reason why I wrote it ("Mean to Me") was because after we got off the road with Lemon Parade, we toured for about three years nonstop. I didn't write for about five or six months and that was very frightening to me because I'm a songwriter and that was really one of my first big dry spells. I looked around my house and I was looking at all the gold and platinum records from around the world that were hanging on my walls. I had this realization that none of this means anything and it's really all about writing songs. I looked up to the powers that be said, "Why do you have to be so mean to me, why can't you jusy give me the music?" And literally within five minutes I wrote the song and it kind of grew out there. I started realizing all the different meanings of the song about people- critics and why they're so mean to artists for absolutely no reason, just refuse to get out of them. They keep getting abused and abused and abused and they don't have the self-confidence and the self-love to realize, "Look, I'm a human being, I need love, I need respect and I command and I should receive these things." It kind of became all those things but it initally started with, why do I have to be so mean to myself? Why am I beating myself up by not writing?
Selling Out: I don't want to come off as a goody two shoes, but I just see so many kids out there who get sucked into this world (rapcore) thing. But it's really bull; it's bullshit. It's not real music. These people don't write those songs. It's laughable to me because I write my songs. I do this from the old school of funk that I'm going to make a change- I'm going to make a difference in music.
