"Dude, isn’t that a really crazy picture for a roadie? Whose carrying the shit? That’s a hell of a roadie.”
"I'm in my moment. I’m feeling’ what I’m doing. That’s really cool. I’m totally zoned out. There’s not a lot of people around, you know it’s like just me. Washington Square Park, I don’t give a fuck! I can remember moments like that where I just zone out, and it’s like, ‘yeah what are you gonna do?’ I could play. Fuck outta here. I don’t pay attention to the people around me when I get like that. I pay attention to what the fuck I’m doing. It’s like, fuck everybody, I want to play my guitar. You like it — you like it. You don’t — you don’t.”
“Playin’ for other people is fuckin’ hard. It’s one of the hardest fuckin’ things. You got people that play for themselves, and you got people that play for other people, the audience. It’s hard playing out here buskin’ playing your original songs, which is cool, there’s nothing wrong with that, but nobody knows them. On the other hand, I play a lot of covers, and then I do some originals and they’re like, ‘What the fuck? Who wrote that?’ I’m like, It’s my song... it springboards. It’s like diving in a pool, hopefully the fuckin’ pool is not empty.”
“Sometimes it takes a lot to put that song out there. You take a break, a 30 second, 40 second break, you know, to generate for the next song.” What does it feel like to walk through the crowd that’s listening to you while they’re clapping? “I don’t give a fuck. ‘Thank you!’”
"Just that moment right there, she was interested in what I was doing. And she had some enjoyment, and I had some enjoyment playing. It was like a very comfortable moment.” Do you remember her name? “I think that’s fucking Emily.” It is. How do you remember all the names of the people you play for? “I don’t. Everybody’s ‘Dude.’ ‘Hey what’s up dude? How you doin?’ Yeah, I want that. Give me a copy of that.” Why do you decide to give so much time to these people? “The intimacy, I’m putting emphasis on how to place her fingers on the strings of the guitar, and she’s paying attention. And she’s comfortable, there’s an intimacy about it. And I enjoy doing it, and she had no problem, even though we’ve got this covid thing.”
What’s it like performing with all this shit going on? “You know, it’s fun, they’re expressing themselves just like I do. It’s cool. I’ve got nothing against artistic point of views... as long as it’s good, clean you know, what the fuck. And we had a good time, he was doing his tricks. Skateboarders come by. It’s all good. As long as they’re not causing no chaos or whatever. And I appreciate it. He’s expressing himself. I mean, to go through all that bullshit, you gotta be expressing yourself in some kinda way. I ain’t doin no one hand stand, fuck all that. I can barely do an A chord.”
"Oh, the Music Inn, that’s really cool! I support Jeff... When I was a kid skateboarding in this park in the 80s he knows me, he’s very supportive. I buy whatever he can sell me. The one thing about the Music Inn, not only does he have instruments from all over the world, but he can play them, and he’s in maintenance, he can fix them and all that shit. He’s a mad scientist.”
“By lookin’ at this photo, I’m looking at my solitude, my contentness. I’m totally fucking content. Very rarely have people seen me sitting in this fucking park without anybody, without anything around me; no guitar, no nothing. I’m at this point where, ‘ahh...’ Look, there’s nobody around me. I don’t know how long that lasts, but I’m content.”
“Yeah, ‘What are you doing?! Come wake up. Are you alright?’ She’s amazing. Yeah, she’s an amazing woman. That jacket, that’s her work. Yeah, she had that jacket and wanted to do something with it. She paints ferociously. Only thing she do is eat, sleep, think, painting.” Were you upset when she woke you up? “It was like the Fourth of July. ‘Hey! How you doin?’ Because I knew, everything was gonna be alright.”
"That really captures that moment, it’s like fuckin’ cool. With my new album cover, I was thinking about using that.”
Blood inside the guitar from playing.
