So There I Was In Hollywood, Thinking

My Selective Memory Of What Drinking Was Like Told Me That Standing At The Bar In A Pub, On A Summer's Evening With A Long, Tall Glass Of Lager And Lime Was Heaven, And I Chose Not To Remember The Nights On Which I Had Sat With A Bottle Of Vodka, A Gram Of Coke And A Shotgun, Contemplating Suicide.

It Is Painful To Relive Things That Have Caused Emotional Crises Or Whatever And Find Ways To Express That Musically.

I Think Everybody Has Their Own Way Of Looking At Their Lives As Some Kind Of Pilgrimage. Some People Will See Their Role As A Pilgrim In Terms Of Setting Up A Fine Family, Or Establishing A Business Inheritance. Everyone's Got Their Own Definition.

I Sought My Father In The World Of The Black Musician, Because It Contained Wisdom, Experience, Sadness And Loneliness. I Was Not Ever Interested In The Music Of Boys. From My Youngest Years, I Was Interested In The Music Of Men.

I Have No Problem With Religion, And I Grew Up With A Strong Curiosity About Spiritual Matters, But My Searching Took Me Away From Church And Community Worship To The Internal Journey. Before My Recovery Began, I Found My God In Music And The Arts, With Writers Like Hermann Hesse, And Musicians Like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, And Little Walter.