Guitar is the best form of self-expression I know. Everything else, and I'm just sort of tripping around, trying to figure my way through life.
I had no aspirations to be a musician, but I picked up a guitar for two seconds and haven't put it down since.
You know, when you really connect with the instrument and everything just comes out on an emotional level very naturally through your playing. That's, you know, a great night. And I think the reason I love touring so much is you're chasing that high around all the time, trying to have another good night.
So when I got to be about 13 or 14, I started listening - even though my parents music was way cool - to contemporary hard rock at that time, which was Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Ted Nugent and all that, and that's just where I came from.
Risk isn't a word in my vocabulary. It's my very existence.