If I'm Crazy, I'm Blissfully So!

Patriotism Can Be Good Or Bad. Knee-jerk Patriotism Can Be Very Bad. I'm Patriotic Almost To The Point Of Self-consciousness, But I Love My Country The Way I Love A Friend Or A Child Who I Would Correct If She Was Going The Wrong Way. Who I Expect The Very Best From.

I Do Feel A Little Embarrassed And Ashamed That I Was Sort Of Saying, "oh, Yes, I Used To Do Country Music, But I Didn't Inhale." Which Is Not True At All. I Inhaled The Hell Out Of Country Music.

I'm Very Influenced By Landscapes, Not So Much The Way Places Look As The Way The Names Sound. In This Country We've Got So Many Cultures, And The Place Names - The Spanish Names And The Indian Names, Which Are So Incredibly Musical.

You Meet A Lot Of People And Have A Lot Of Experiences, And They Color You And Stay With You - But I'm Not The Grieving Widow. Life Is Much More Complicated And Interesting And Full Of Zigs And Zags Than That.

The Reason You Write [songs] Is Because There's Something You Want To Say That Is Important To You - Enough To Go Through All The Torture Of Writing.