To Live Outside The Law, You Must

You Have To Look At Every One Of Your Songs And Be Able To Identify With Them In A Meaningful Way. You Can Hardly Sing Your Songs Unless You're In Them. If You Want To Fake It, Go Ahead. Fake It If You Want. But I'm Not That Kind Of Singer.

Early On, Before Rock 'n' Roll, I Listened To Big Band Music - Anything That Came Over The Radio - And Music Played By Bands In Hotels That Our Parents Could Dance To. We Had A Big Radio That Looked Like A Jukebox, With A Record Player On The Top. The Radio/record Player Played 78rpm Records. When We Moved To That House, There Was A Record On There, With A Red Label. It Was Bill Monroe, Or Maybe It Was The Stanley Brothers. I'd Never Heard Anything Like That Before. Ever. And It Moved Me Away From All The Conventional Music That I Was Hearing.

I Never Did Use Earphones Until Into The Eighties Or Nineties. I Don't Like To Use Earphones. I've Never Heard Anybody Sing With Earphones Effectively. They Just Give You A False Sense Of Security. A Lot Of Us Don't Need Earphones. I Don't Think Springsteen Or Mick Do. But Other People More Or Less Have Given In. But They Ought Not To. They Don't Need To. Especially If They Have A Good Band.

It Wouldn't Kill You To Stay The Night Anyway.

My Songs Are Personal Music, They're Not Communal. I Wouldn't Want People Singing Along With Me. It Would Sound Funny. I'm Not Playing Campfire Meetings. I Don't Remember Anyone Singing Along With Elvis, Carl Perkins Or Little Richard.