We Have Power Not Just With Our

I Didn't Choose To Be A Guitar Player. That Was Something That Felt Like It Was Chosen For Me. And With That Blessing And Curse, I, Throughout My Entire Career, It's Been My Job To Weave My Convictions Into My Vocation. And Whether I'm Standing In The Streets Of Chicago Or The Occupy Wall Street Or In Madison, Wisconsin, My Job Is To Steel The Backbone Of People On The Frontlines Of Social Justice Struggles, And To Put Wind In Sails Of Those Struggles. And People Who Are Fighting On A, On A Daily Basis, At A Grass Roots Level, For The Things That I Believe In.

What Draws People To The Instrument Is The Love For Guitar Players That Play A Certain Way. I Mean, Even Though It Wasn't Intentional, It Was Hard To Avoid Copying Eddie Van Halen. He Was Basically The *bleep* Back Then.

If Aliens Came Down And Challenged Us To A Battle Of The Bands To Decide The Fate Of Planet Earth, I Would Feel Very Confident Putting Early Van Halen Forward As Our Champion.

I Feel Fortunate To Have Made Records During An Era Where People Actually Bought Music. But I Have Friends In Struggling Up-and-coming Bands Now That Will Certainly Never Be Able To Pay The Rent, Because Music Has Been Devalued.

America Touts Itself As The Land Of The Free, But The Number One Freedom That You And I Have Is The Freedom To Enter Into A Subservient Role In The Workplace. Once You Exercise This Freedom You’ve Lost All Control Over What You Do, What Is Produced, And How It Is Produced. And In The End, The Product Doesn’t Belong To You. The Only Way You Can Avoid Bosses And Jobs Is If You Don’t Care About Making A Living. Which Leads To The Second Freedom: The Freedom To Starve.