Life isn't that complicated on paper. It's made more complex by the day and age we live.

Heavy metal to me implies a relentless, pounding, hitting-people-over-the-head music. Trend setters tend to dismiss it as basic and simple, but all the time that little trends keep coming and going, the Bob Segers, Bruce Springsteens and the Billy Squiers keep staying.

What I do is a bit broader in scope than a heavy metal band like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, ACDC and so on.

When a band retires or is In hiding, a void is created. The fans' need is still there.

I just stopped playing. I did some screenwriting and got into the nature thing. Music kind of went away.

Music became so commercialized that I just didn't want anything to do with it. I renounced the industry before it became the fashionable thing to do.

I read one article that called me the 'latest pretender to the Led Zeppelin throne.'… If I saw the guy I'd knock him out. Because that's not true - I'm not pretending anything. If my records sell, it's because of me.

I try to keep the theatrics to a minimum and let the music do the talking.

Piper took me one step further in that it got my first real recording contract but the band just didn't quite mature. It didn't break things open, but it got me to the door.

You can't just say, 'God help me,' and he's there. It takes a little bit more work on the part of the individual, I think.

I heard that I was off traveling around the world skiing in Argentina and things like that. I may have had a great life in somebody's mind, but all I was seeing was 9th Avenue while going from my house down to the studio in New York City.

I don't have to forsake my career as a musician. I know how to write songs - that's not going to leave me. But I think it's good to explore some other avenues.

I don't sit around going, 'What is the matter with me? What do I have to do to get a hit?' And I don't also sit home and listen to my record every day and get drunk and go, 'Wow, this is great.'

Music is cyclical, but I've never thought of the music I make as being so off the wall or left field that it wouldn't always have an audience that would relate to it.

People say, 'When are you making this comeback?' I say, 'It's not a comeback, it's a record.' They say, 'Where have you been all these years?' I say, 'I've been making records.'

I'm not gonna get it all right, but I take my victories, as small as they are.

We do things instinctively and not necessarily rationally. It's almost like we're being controlled by unseen forces, which is something I don't like. I've been making a real effort to try to find out what those forces are and get them out of my life.

At all points, you have to look at what you're doing and say, 'Do I want to do this?' 'Am I up to it?' 'Am I strong enough?'

When I write the songs, I don't dictate how people should interpret them.

That's a dangerous combination, serious and rock 'n' roll. But yeah, I'm pretty serious. I've been at this a long time, and it takes a certain amount of seriousness.

I don't feel any great need to dress in funny-looking clothes and be recognized as a star, nor do I get that much satisfaction out of hanging around all the main clubs so people can see who I am.

I never try to create a different personality or anything like that. I'm not like David Bowie or somebody like that, who changes personas each year.

I'm the middle-class kid; it doesn't sound exciting, but a lot of my audience is middle-class kids.

I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.