I really had to think and learn about musical intervals.

Since I was a kid, I've had an absolute obsession with particular kinds of American music. Mississippi Delta blues of the Thirties, Chicago blues of the Fifties, West Coast music of the mid-Sixties - but I'd never really touched on dark Americana.

You have to ask these questions: who pays the piper, and what is valuable in this life?

I hate cliche.

I still like to get carried away - but passively.

My dad played fiddle as well.

I think I surprise myself.

I'm just lucky because my kids are grown-up - I love them, very proud of them, and we are in close contact as big-time friends, but they don't need me that much now and I can actually enjoy this wonderful world of music.

Alone I'm nothing.