Yeah my drum programming especially is based on my knowledge of playing a drum kit. For the bass too definitely. It was the first thing that I translated any sort of ideas through. It must have shaped it somehow.

'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' took a year to record that's why the playing on it might sound somewhat labored. 'Balance ' on the other hand was written and recorded in only four months so the whole process was quicker and more immediate.

Intelligence is playing a more important role in policymaker decisions than I think I've ever seen in my time in Congress or before.

But in my imagination this whole thing developed and I started mixing up old folk songs with the Beatles beat and taking them down to Greenwich Village and playing them for the people there.

Essentially I'm untrained so I just go with my imagination and try to put myself as solidly as I can into the shoes of whatever person I'm going to be playing.

It's a slight stretch of the imagination but most people are alike in most ways so I've never had any trouble identifying with the character that I'm playing.

Classical plays require more imagination and more general training to be able to do. That's why I like playing Shakespeare better than anything else.

Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.

I love doing comedy. You don't get many good comedy scripts. They're rare. But I do love playing comedy. Even in drama I like to try to find the humor because I think it's very human.

But it was this tough little character part that I was playing a very funny little guy that I invented over a weekend because I realized I was not contributing to the humor of this thing. And I had to do something.

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation. I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.

I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation.

I hate formal stuff. I love looking like a doll and all that stuff and playing dress up but when I'm home sweat pants t-shirt. When I'm in the studio sweat pants t-shirt.

The coolest thing and I have it at home is a huge Hulk Hogan normal-sized pinball machine. When people come over they play it for hours. When you hit the bumpers and the bells ring it goes 'Oh yeah!' The whole time you're playing this machine it's yelling and screaming at you 'What you gonna do brother?!' I think that's the coolest.

And now I still really don't care that much but now I have music playing all the time at home which is a first for me. Whatever. Everything from Ani DiFranco to Dave Matthews to Jack Johnson and Norah Jones.

I'm kind of a dork. I don't have much game. I'm not particularly comfortable in bars or clubs. I much prefer being home playing Scrabble having dinner with a couple friends going to see a movie or losing a whole weekend to Season 14 of Law and Order or The Simpsons.

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.

It's like kids playing house: 'You play the father I'll play the mother.' You know you dress up you play they pay you go home. It's a game - acting's a game.

It's a miracle was the last track recorded for the album we based it on the rhythm from the middle of 'Late Home Tonight where there's Graham Broad playing lots and lots of drums with me shouting in the background pretending to be a mad Arab leader.

Playing drums feels like coming home for me. Even during the White Stripes I thought: 'I'll do this for now but I'm really a drummer.' That's what I'll put on my passport application.

Why would I retire? Sit at home and watch TV? No thanks. I'd rather be out playing.

There is just no comparison between having a dinner date with a man and staying home playing canasta with the girls.

I went to Ohio University studying arts and history and playing football. But I was only interested in girls my pals and sports. I only did the minimum for school.

There was never going to be a right time for a band that was still recording and had health in its environment had made a very good record and was playing well.