In 2005, I worked as a scenic painter for a while when I was taking a break from music.

I don't really take time off between records; it's a compulsion for me.

No one would hang out with me if I didn't have music to make.

Doing something that's physical but not necessarily mentally taxing - for me, it frees me up creatively.

I'm not really interested in video games.

When I was in high school, I took French. I barely passed and didn't learn anything at all. There was a joke among me and my friends in the class that nothing sounded more ridiculous than a guy with a country accent speaking French.

I can't say what people use the experience of listening to songs for, but I would never tell somebody what it is supposed to mean. That defeats the purpose of making it. Hopefully, whoever connects with it connects with it in their own way, and it can mean whatever it is supposed to mean to them.

I enjoy working on whatever I'm working on.

All the guys I know that play guitar are also secretly drummers and vice versa.

Even when I'm making my own solo records, I'm collaborating with people. It keeps things interesting for me.

Usually I write on guitar.

I'm not a human interest story, man. I'm just a musician trying to make some small records and be happy, be peaceful.

I was in trouble with the law from when I was real young.

Everybody has unhappiness.

My favorite record, growing up, was 'Songs of the Haunted House,' a Disney record that was just wackiness. It's still one of my favorites, actually.

In 1997, I thought I'd never make another record.

I have a high tolerance for pain.

I wasn't the easiest guy to work with when I was younger.

You can only really sing about what you know; at least, I can.

I'm trying to learn how to read. I have a tutor out on the road. It is great.

I just sort of do what comes natural.

I think there's something therapeutic in singing about anything, whether it's what you've written or whether it's someone else's song. I find both satisfying in different ways.

I try and treat songwriting as something that I have to practise every day.

It's a different kind of satisfaction, different kind of enjoyment than making your own songs, to remake someone else's song that you really like.