Gossip is more popular than literature.
I just love putting on a show. I get a tremendous sense of community out of it.
Aloha Earth, this is Elvis calling. You'll find me in the big house now.
There's nothing I like more than a writer who can sing, or a musician who has a book out.
A friend of mine pointed out to me, "Why do you separate your writing and your music?" I got (writers) Rick Moody and Jonathan Ames to do the first one, and it just kind of gathered steam; then NPR picked it up. It is a nice way for me to marry both sides of my career, a move that's probably culminated in me dropping the name John Wesley Harding.
When I was writing this new bunch of songs, I was singing a lot lower, because they were more intimate in a way. I had to come up with a way to frame the music that was intimate.
Novels may have taken care of the emotional business for me, which has allowed music to be more emotional for me.
I felt, implicitly, or not so implicitly, that subjects about women and other races were out of my jurisdiction as a creator. That if I moved too far from my own experience, and my own established identity, I would be criticized for taking even more of those wedding pies from others.
I never like to play for myself, and that is why I don't own a grand piano. To play for yourself is like looking at yourself in a mirror. I like to practice; that is to work at a task. But to play there must be an audience. New things happen when you play for an audience. You don't know what will occur. You make discoveries with the music, and it is always the first time. It is an exchange, a communion.
Don't allow false modesty,doubts or unbelief prevent you from accepting God's favor. The door of mercy stands wide open.
We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all America stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.