Jackson on Warren Zevon (mp3, 1.5 MB)

Q: On Solo Acoustic vol. 1, you take these songs that have been built up to these grand arrangements sometimes and then you have to strip them down. Did you find yourself sometimes getting closer to the song's emotional essence when you stripped it down?

A: I think you do get more to the song's emotional essence by playing it alone. You certainly get to show the song architecture in high relief. No place to hide -- either you felt it and it moved you or you didn't, because there's nothing else going on. There's no solo really. There's no -- there's nothing. There's just the song. But a song like Take it Easy has got a spirit there that is unmistakable. So many people know this song and so many people love this song. And so many people are happy just to like come out of whatever composure they may have to just wildly enjoy singing this song. That you don't have to ask people to sing this song. You don't have to make it a sing-a-long. People just do it. Everybody knows it. And in other countries, too.

Q: When you sing a song like that that's 30+ years old, are you in touch with the original inspiration or are you bringing something new to the table as well?

A: Well, when I recorded it, I recorded it on my second album, because I didn't write enough songs not to. I thought, okay, I'll put that on there. But I did my own version. I did it with David Lindley and a great drummer from Arizona named Mickey McGee, playing this sort of high- hat gallop thing I thought was a very cool trick he had. And we got Sneaky Pete from the Burrito Brothers to play. And I loved the pedal steel on that. I thought, well, this is my own version of the song. And there were ways in which I phrased the melody which were a little different than what Glenn did. And I just had two-part harmony instead of like the big harmonies. And I then I really stopped playing the song after that album. I didn't really go on, because it was a hit for the Eagles. For that matter, nobody even knew that I had anything to do with writing it. And I was more concerned with my newer songs. And I began singing this song a few years ago and realized that, even I prefer the Eagles' version (laughs). I mean, when I first started singing it again, I started going right into Our Lady of The Well. And I still do that. But basically, it's such a hoot to have people start singing and doing the ooh's at the end and stuff. Yeah, I'm happy to embrace the song that has become -- it's one of those collaborations where the Eagles -- like I say, it's the power of a hit. I mean, this lives in the hearts and the minds of millions of people around the world. It would be really odd to, and obtuse to cling to a version that they don't know. My version's not that different. If you strip it all down, it's not that different.

Q: It's a song that, in some ways, Jackson, seems like means the same today as it did back then -- what we get out of it. "There's a girl, my Lord" - that means the same 35 years later.

A: Yeah. Yeah. It's really about -- it's also very akin to the Barricades of Heaven. It's about running around, looking for your life. It's looking for something that -- as I said, there's that redemptive quality and "there's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford" - I couldn't tell you what I was doing driving around Arizona when I was 20, but it's about a time in your life when you're looking for what life may hold for you. You're looking to sort of define yourself, you know, not getting caught up. Don't be desperate, just relax. There's so much here.

Q: Take it easy.

A: I don't know if people still use the expression "take it easy." I can't tell, because I can't tell whether they're saying it to me or they're just saying it. Do people still say, "take it easy"?

Q: There's a song of yours that when I first heard it in the '80s, I thought, yeah, 10, 15 years from now, this song is going to sound dated. And I've heard it on solo acoustic vol. 1 and the sad part is that it's remained as relevant as ever. And it's the song Lives in the Balance. Does it surprise you that it's still relevant? Does it disappoint you?

A: No, I agree that it's a sad thing that it is still -- that it probably as relevant -- it's probably more relevant now that when it was written. When I first wrote it, it was about Central America. And the truth is that our foreign policy has been developed over many, many, many years. I mean, from an historical standpoint, it's developed over 100 years or more. And that what we've done in regards to our secret foreign policy and the machinations of our global aspirations has been a long time in developing. And we, as people, as a society, know very little of what our government does in our name, in the name of our interests. You can excuse almost anything by saying we will pursue American interests. It's another song that raises a lot of questions as to what those interests really are and whether or not our interests are being served by -- by – whether the interests of the American people are really served by our foreign policy or whether it's the interests of a small minority of people, but a very powerful minority. People whose work it is to build and develop weapons and systems of control, and of domination.

I think that there's an overall nationalist pride, a sense of belief in our country which is a healthy thing, which is very akin to the belief you have for your hometown. Your home team, that gets perverted and is somehow a belief in American domination. You know, it's pride of our country and our systems and our innovations and of our strengths as a people and of our character. Pride in all those things somehow being brought to serve the idea that we should dominate the rest of the world militarily and economically.

The problem, of course, with that -- and it's an obvious thing, but I'll just go ahead and say it, is that every country has that pride and their belief in themselves and a belief that in their own right to be free and so that anybody coming into our sphere to dominate us, would be met with the same kind of opposition that we're being met with when we go around to other places in the world and try to dominate them militarily, economically.

And so this is a song that is -- that's really, yes, sad that it's relevant now and that you can sing it. I mean, I've recently been working on a recording of this in which we use Iraqi instruments, rather than when I recorded it. But the song itself, rather than when I recorded it, which there were South American instruments -- because we've done the same thing in very, very far-flung parts of the world. You could do a Phillipino version of it. It really is raising questions about who we think we are and what right we have to pursue our interests beyond that which is ethical and moral for people, universally.

Q: Can you sense a different reaction when you sing Lives in the Balance overseas versus singing it in America?

A: No, the reaction is the same. Matter of fact, I think this recording is from somewhere in Europe. This is a song that didn't get -- people didn't know what to make of this song when I offered it in the '80s, because they didn't know very much about the context. They didn't know much about what our foreign policy was. In that particular era, in the '80s, at that time, people weren't very aware of what our country was doing. By the end of the '80s and beginning of the '90s, with the Iran Contra scandal, they became more and more aware. This song only slightly predates the Iran Contra scandal. But that sort of came to a head. Like, for instance, I used to have to introduce that song -- I used to think I had to introduce it with a rather -- well, it's kind of a long introduction. It just sounded like suddenly the show went left and he started talking about politics.

But the song itself says enough in it that, along with people's increased awareness of the subject, it doesn't require any introduction at all. And for that matter, it's one of the most eesounding ovations of any given show.

Q: Do you think you have Republican fans and do you mind alienating them when you play that song?

A: I've never worried about who I might alienate because they disagree with my politics. I mean, I think that's one of the things that we live in a pluralistic society in which it's our right and our obligation to express ourselves. So if you disagree with me about that, there are probably a multitude of things that we do agree about and especially about our right to express ourselves. No, I certainly don't worry about it if that's the question. Occasionally, people have really -- like I say, in the '80s people used to like worry. I think even people that loved my music was worried that I was going to go off into an area that was -- that's not entertaining or not -- that they didn't enjoy. And now, I think people know that -- or people accept the idea that -- your political views -- that is has a place in every life. And that an artist may express a point of view that you don't, yourself hold.

I mean, nothing was more obvious than in the Vote For Change tour, where like a lot of people who disagree with say -- I mean, you saw it on the news all the time. I'm going to give Bruce as an example. Bruce's fans would be interviewed. And I think with our media, they made it a point to show people who disagreed with him. This is the odd thing about the media. They didn't think that they could really even give coverage to the Vote For Change tour without showing the opposing point of view. So all they really did ever show was the opposing point of view. They had to show, (adopts TV annoucer voice) "well, we have 20 fans out here that say they're not going to go to this Vote For Change concert because they disagree with The Boss." But then they interview them and they say, "I disagree so I'm not going to go to this case, but I love Bruce and I'm going to be at his next show" -- to illustrate what I was saying you saw that people were able to disagree and didn't worry that much.

At the same time, they may arrive at some point down the line in which they realize that they do agree or that they find that it's not so -- I mean, this is what democracy and what the political plurality is all about. People come to their truths in a different sequence than another person. People assume that during the course of a life you learn something.

Now, some people grow up being imbued with -- being aware of politics in their youth and come -- and maybe grow into an awareness, a tempering kind of quality of life where some people who are radical in their youth become more conservative in their older years. Other people are not political at all in their youth and become politicized by the events, by the economic, by the consequences, of the policies of their government, and become more political as life goes on.

I think that there are a great many people who have been politicized by the Iraq war. They see that this was a very unpopular war, that false reasons were offered and cynically offered and they want to hold the government to account and responsible for (it)-- and the more they don't get those answers, the more they're politicized by it.

Q: "A government lies to its people in a country is drifting to war." There you go.

A: Well, the song itself has always -- I always thought it did pretty well by itself, because there's no place... like this is just a moment in which an idea is presented and you canagree or disagree or -- and I would say that most of the people that listen to my music -- I'd say most of them. I don't say all of them, but most of them agree with this idea. It's a moment that goes by and it's a kind of a touchstone. The song -- some critic along the way, when it first came out, said, "This is more of a speech than a song." I thought, "yeah, okay. It's a speech." I thought it was a speech someone should make.

Like I say, I wrote this song with the band and with a sequencer really, like a marimba sound on the original record was the instrument I used rather than the guitar. So I had to find a way of playing it on guitar.

Q: I notice that on your website, jacksonbrowne.com, you have posted links to writings from journalists on various issues. So that tells me you're pretty hands-on with your website.

A: I decide to post things that I read, you know: "Let's put that on the website." I think it's one way of giving people who listen to my music an option to go off and if they're inclined to -- I mean, I used to glean everything I could about Bob Dylan, the Beatles or the music I listened to. I mean, for that matter, Geoff Muldar or Dave Van Ronk. I mean, I knew Dave Van Ronk read science fiction. I know Geoff Muldar wrote that song Gingerman, about -- based on the character of a novel. I can't remember the author's name now, but it's called The Gingerman. Or that, you know, Bob Dylan mentioned the I Ching in some article and I got a copy of the I Ching. And so I thought, well, to include readings or especially contemporary readings, I would put down a book list -- you know, I may do that, too. But it's just a way of like, saying, "oh, by the way, have you read this?" Same way you would if you ran into a friend of yours on the street.

Q: I'd like to see a section on the site about your favorite cover versions of your songs, because, I have a few favorites and I want to ask you first what some of your favorite versions are of your songs done by other people.

A: Well, one of my favorite songs is a song that I barely wrote, but I co-wrote with Warren Zevon, called Tenderness on the Block, that Shawn Colvin did a beautiful version of. And I think Gary Bond's version of the The Pretender -- which was produced by Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt. There's a Paul Westerberg version of These Days that's pretty great. And I like it because he sings the original lyrics, the Nico version. Nico's version of These Days is really cool. And I --

Q: Well, here's a favorite, okay. Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris' version of For a Dancer.

A: Yeah.

Q: I mean, that's such a great version that they do. And you really get to the core of it on solo acoustic. And there's that line about throwing some seeds of your own. It made me wonder, since we were going to be talking, how many children you have and how old they are and how their relationship shapes your life.

A: Yeah. I've got two sons, who are born about eight years apart. The oldest is 31, so that would mean that the youngest is 23. The 23-year-old lives in Australia and the oldest lives in Los Angeles. My oldest son is a screenwriter and a deejay. And the youngest is in University and he also plays -- he sings and plays guitar and writes songs.

Matter of fact, we were on a trip this summer and he just blew my mind. He pulled out this really cool song. We were meeting a bunch of Norwegian people who are our relatives, like our family in Norway and whom we'd never met. And he started pulling out these songs. And it was really a trip. I thought it was a great song. A really cool song. I mean, one day he sang it and it wasn't finished. And then a couple of days later -- he disappeared in his room and a couple days later he was playing it for some other relatives and it's farther along. You know, obviously, I'm really happy about the fact that my sons are into music.

But he's somebody who is, like comes to my shows and listens to what -- you know, he likes to sit down and play. I mean, when he figured out I had all these different guitars and different tunings, I could just see the wheels turning, because he is -- the youngest, lived in an ashram for a long time and was into singing these Indian devotional songs. And he picked up some of these guitars with these low tunings and went, "Oh" and like he started singing in a completely different voice and he started -- there was all his power in the arrangement, rather than trying to play them in a conventional -- you know, the conventional chords. You can sometimes play in a modal. A modal tuning is completely -- releases the power of a song.

Q: And your son who's the musician, his name is?

A: My youngest son's name is Ryan. And he lives in Australia and sing and plays guitar. He also plays piano and he scored a documentary film about the ocean. He's a web designer, too, and he goes to university.

And my oldest son, Ethan, who's a screenwriter, an actor and a deejay, is 31, lives in L.A. My two nephews also grew up with me various times of their life. I have a set of like -- raised four only children in succession like that. No, I actually can't say I raised Ryan. Ryan was raised in another household with his mom and step-father. But, yeah, I've got four kids. And my older nephew lived with me for a while. He's a Kung Fu teacher and goes to university too. And the youngest is 15. My nephew is going to high school and living with us and plays saxophone. He's a lot of fun, because I took him to see Ozomatli, I mean, you could see it, like the doors just got kicked open. Here he sees a multi-racial band playing horns and indigenous and hip-hop and it just put the whole thing together for him. That night, they invited him to sit in with them. The guy he was talking to was a horn player and he says, "You play horn?" He said, "You've got your horn with you, right?" And he just happened to have the horn. And he says, "Well, okay." They invited him to play at their gig. You know, they were doing a reunion at some club. First they invited us to come. I said, "I don't think Shane can get in because he's 15." They said, "No, he can get in if he's playing." So they invited him. And he took the stage. And it was really a trip.

Yeah, so everybody's -- everybody's into music. Even the Kung Fu teacher, -- he's into music as a matter of fact, too. He's into programming. He likes to program. He's a drummer, but he likes to program the beat and stuff.

Q: You've been performing covers now and again. I understood recently you've been doing some songs by your late friend, Warren Zevon, some of whose albums you produced. Is there a way for you to sum up what made Warren so damn special?

A: Warren was -- Warren really was -- he was just so unique. He was darkly funny. He had a tremendous sense of irony. He was funny all the time. But he really delivered a kind of literacy that was very – it was very highly developed in those days. He was like far and away more literate than anybody I ever knew. He like really read. There were literary references in all of his songs. I mean, he read the detective genre, Ross McDonald -- and Mailer. He read a lot of Mailer. I once introduced him as the -- I think I said something like "The Ernest Hemmingway of the 12-string guitar." And he corrected me and he said "The Charles Bronson of the 12-string guitar." I mean, he always opted -- he never really let anything be. And he always opted to push for a kind of -- a surprising kind of arresting -- a persona that was sort of berserk. At the same time, it was so informed by -- by high-brow stuff. Like he was the only guy that didn't object to the term Folk Singer. And he would claim to have been a Folk Singer. Almost it was like saying, "I used to wash dishes in Hell's Kitchen" or something. He would say, "I was a Folk Singer." But people who really were folk singers wouldn't -- you know, like, none dare call it folk. I mean, no one really wanted to be called that -- or would claim to be. Because, in fact, it wasn't folk singer, it was a songwriter. But I mean, songwriters who came from folk music always had to try to make that distinction.

And he was unique in that he really had a sense of theater and of like presenting himself in a dramatic way that was very developed. His songs like The French Inhaler, or Desperados Under the Eaves were really very sardonic and very ironic about the way we live. His song Gorilla You're a Desperado, was this sort of like he was fifing up from the wings as -- I mean, more than one people have like taken a piss out of the Eagles for like that sort of a cowboy stance.

Which is a really insightful thing. The truth is, he was a highly moral person and very funny about what happens, what life does to you and what life brings your way. (Pause) And I guess I always felt that Warren's songs were -- I began singing his songs in the year that he was dying, because I just wanted to be closer to him. And I wanted to -- and every audience I said, "I'm going to sing a Warren Zevon song" everybody really welcome this chance to sort of savor him and to -- and to -- well, to be in touch with the part of him that can't die and won't die. So I -- I enjoyed getting to do that. Of course, I had to concede that I knew every one of his songs by heart and could play them without even having run it down to myself before. So I sort of butchered them on a few occasions, you know, not realizing that it's actually very complex piano playing. He's a very fine musician. I mean, he was a prodigy, really.

He spent time with Igor Stravinsky in his youth. He got to visit him in his house and visit him on a number of occasions. Igor Stravinsky took an interest in him. And so, I mean, he was -- he was at an accelerated musical level, but he was also not one to base much on that. I think that he put more emphasis on his experiential, on his -- you know, he liked the Stones so much. He saw a lot of humor and a lot of vitality, like a lot of passion in a certain kind of bare-bones, bare-knuckle kind of rock and roll stance, that was -- he once -- he would like take the piss out of you. He once -- you know, he'd call me like Kahil Ga-Browne, because of the kind of emphasis placed on the ethereal in some of my songs, and the way some college-aged girls related to me. He was the funniest among our crowd, our friends.

He'd been a lot of places. I think the only person that you can think of as funny and as darkly funny as Warren is Randy Newman. But they're entirely different, and their approach would be different. I mean, you can compare them only because there are stark differences too. But I think that he was totally unique.

And I mean -- well, here's what's spooky is his son has got basically the same physical architecture. His son Jordan can sound exactly like him. Of course, he only does that when he's singing his father's songs. When I heard him singing recently, Tenderness On the Block, it was like a Warren who can really sing.

Q: It's 2005, Warren Zevon has now passed on into being a legend. So many of the folks you knew or know, like David Geffen, who you did your first record deal with is now a billionaire mogul, you lent you studios to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan when he recorded his first album. He's a statue in our city. We talked about hanging out with Nico and the whole Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol scene. Is it strange when your friends become legends and then their stories sort of evolve into mythologies?

A: Yeah, it is strange. It's strange and it's beautiful. You see how that works. Fact is that I've been fortunate to know a lot of people who really do and did incredible work -- who do incredible work. And that work is what makes it. So that's what makes them. I mean I instinctively distrust fame and distrust wealth and distrust the sort of prevailing measuring sticks of our society, but just as I'm discovering that the Eagles' version of Take it Easy is the thing that made it known to millions of people worldwide and the thing about it was that it was a hit. It was played over and over and over again. So it's that. That coupled with the fact that it's good. That what they did was unique. They were so influential. All kinds of country musicians heard these long-haired guys that went of to L.A. and giving them back what they got from country music. Because they weren't a country -- they were playing very country like versions, but they grew up listening to R&B. That's why it's so easy for them to make a transition from songs like Take it Easy to songs like The Best of My Love, or something that's more rooted in soul.

Q: One of These Nights?

A: One of These Nights, yeah. That was a stunning sort of transition for them. The things that people love for a long time sort of pass into that sort of area of history and being referred to. I mean, I meet all kinds of people who are not young people, but whose parents turned them on to my music. And I was like, God bless them for liking to play this music with their kids. I mean, my parents -- my father played me all kinds of Dixieland Jazz. And so I'm familiar with that music, really, because of that. Otherwise, it would be the feature of the background music for some period movie. That's the thing is that really good music has a longevity and has a way of lasting. And people's uniqueness, like the uniqueness of Warren Zevon or the uniqueness of Shawn Colvin's approach to singing are going to be with us forever. There's nobody else that sounds like that, so...

Q: Well, from mythology to astrology. I don't know if you believe in astrology at all, but you have the same birthday as John Lennon. Two artists who balanced heard and mind. Two artists who are activists. Has it ever been strange for you sharing that birthday?

A: No -- and John Entwistle, too, by the way.

Q: Right.

A: So I think it would be a mistake to make too much of that coincidence, but certainly I feel a little kindred. I mean, it would be impossible to feel any more kindred about John Lennon than I already do, based on just how influential his songs and his thinking and his activism, his stand on war and the fact that he was sort of irreverent – he was an iconoclast. So, I mean, I love him for those things. And then idea that he has the same birthday is such a -- compared to all those other things, it's kind of a very minor coincidence. It's not of too much interest.

But I do want to do a -- I've got an idea for a kind of an October 9th celebration. There's a little plaza in Barcelona called Plaza John Lennon. Just as there's a statue of John Lennon in Cuba, (and) there's a little monument to him in a little Imagine square in Central Park. And I think about this little square in a working-class neighborhood of Barcelona that -- there's nothing in there. It's just kind of square. A couple of trees growing in there. It's basically surrounded by apartments and stuff. I thought of like doing a concert with various people (coming) to that place every year and sing his songs. Just sing them all day long, whether there's a PA or not, whether there's any coverage of it. But just to do that, because I love the fact that they made a square, that they named a square after him. But it would be complicated by the fact that it's my birthday, too. Only in that, you know --

Q: Just come out and do some John Entwistle riffs on the bass and then we'll have everyone coming.

A: Yeah, if you include everybody whose birthday is October 9th I think it might actually water the thing down a little bit.

Q: Jackson, your new live album is solo acousti volume 1. So I'm thinking that means a Volume 2 is in the works. Are there some specific songs you'd like to deconstruct, as it were?

A: Yeah, there are definitely songs that I would have put on this, if I was going to be double album. I mean, I think there's at least a Volume 2 there and possibly more. Like I say, I haven't listened to everything. There was a great version of In the Shape of a Heart. We didn't put Running on Empty or -- there was some obvious songs that should be included in any kind of collection. And we just didn't listen to everything. We just sort of didn't go looking. We didn't do the exhaustive search for all those. And I think that also the idea that there were songs on the Naked Ride Home that I would have put on the record. And The Night Inside Me was one of them too. I like the acoustic version of that. That's sort of a flat picking version. I couldn't have put those on, because they‘re not -- they won't be clear to use for another couple of years.

Q: One song that's not on acoustic vol. 1, in fact, it's only ever appeared on your 1997 best-of compilation, The Next Voice You Hear, is The Rebel Jesus. It's a holiday song, but not one with total abandon. "So I bid you pleasure and I bid you cheer from a heathen and a pagan on the side of the Rebel Jesus". What originally brought that forth?

A: I was invited to be on a Chieftains' Christmas album. And I jumped at the chance to get to play with the Chieftains. I love the Chieftains and they said, "Would you like to sing a Christmas song?" I said,"Oh, yeah, I love Christmas songs." And I do. I love caroling and like I love to hear it. And I grew up singing certain Christmas carols and stuff. And there's a very cool party in L.A. that happens every Christmas at the house of Bob Clearmountain the great mixer and his wife Betty Bennett puts on this thing. The whole room full of people sing all these great Christmas -- it's a fun thing to do. But until you've tried to actually be the featured vocalist on a Christmas carol, you don't even know what you're talking about, because that's like -- "what am I going to sing? Away in a Manager?" I mean, like it doesn't really work that way. So I committed to doing it and said I was going to do it. And then I went, "oh, but, wait a minute." And I called Paddy Malone back up and he said, "Oh, yeah, I know what you mean, Jesus, Mary and the donkey. Yeah, it's a" -- it's like he was having the same problem coming up with enough of the right songs.

And I was hanging around with this Mayan guy. An Indian from Guatemala who was sort of teaching me Spanish. And he said, "You're a writer. Write them one." Meanwhile, we had been discussing the effects of Christianity on his culture and he was a devout -- kind of very steeped in human rights issues. So this song just came out. It came out as kind of jennamacramp (sp?) about Christianity, about the institution of Christianity, but at the same time, an embracing of the teachings of Christ and encouraging people to -- I think encouraging myself to feel good about those teachings and about believing in Christ without really -- I can't really call myself a Christian. Neither am I really a pagan. A heathen, perhaps (laughs) It was kind of like three or four days in which I really tried to sort out my feelings about all that and still make the Friday, session (laughs).

Q: Jackson, before we go, I know you've been busy in the studio working on different projects. What's going on right now?

A: I'm recording an album with a Gospel choir who are recording some of my songs and some of their own songs. And so it's songs that will take that incredibly impassioned and devout treatment. Having choruses sung by a group of people and singing loud, too. And they surprised me. We started just by trying to like do recordings of some of the songs that we had done when we had got together. We'd run into each other at various fund-raising things. And so we were just going to record those two things. And then they started coming in with more and more of my songs. So they surprised me by wanting to record Lives in the Balance and even wrote a fourth verse from the standpoint of very devout Christians talking about war.

It's been an outstanding, outstanding experience for me. (In the) first place, it's so fulfilling to hear really truly great singers interpret my songs. That is just really fulfilling. You know, you're hearing this incredible singer singing and I think, "oh, yeah, I wrote that" (laughs). In truth, it's really more collaborative than anything else I can imagine. It's a young choir. They're all in their late teens and early 20s. So it's really quite remarkable.

It's just a treat to be around, to be sort of in the bosom of this group of people who are really world's -- I mean, they live on the other side of town from me. They live in South Central L.A. So it's a way of really experiencing a part of America, part of our culture that normally you don't have access to. Not only the church, but young, black people who have that incredible vibrant, passionate grasp of where they're going with their lives. It's really exciting.

They did Don't You Want to be There, World in Motion, Lives in the Balance. They did The Next Voice You Hear. And it's just been incredible.

So that album -- I'm finishing that album and that album will be out in March. Ozomatli came and olayed on Lives in the Balance. So you're listening to Lives in the Balance being sung by the three vocalists -- the three narrative voices are women. And yet, it really feels like you're riding around in a tank. You're hearing Iraqi instruments and -- mixed with you know, vato guitar, Raul's guitar and his sax playing. It's really like an incredible chaotic sounding approach to asking these... and once again, the structure of the song is to really ask questions about what they're doing there, who we think we are. So, in a way, it's the most fulfilling thing to hear these songs interpreted that way. Both in terms of my career, but also just personally to know them. It's incredible.

Q: I've got to tell you, look forward to that project, March of 2006, the gospel interpretations of some of your songs. Look forward to solo acoustic vol. 2 coming out.

A: Well, the next thing I'm doing really -- before solo acoustic vol. 2, there will be like an album of new songs. And that would be with my band. And that's becoming more and more collaborative experience too. So I'm looking forward to, hopefully, having that project complete in the next year.

Q: Well, I can just say, thank you so much for your candor today and --

A: Thank you, Jody. Thanks for doing this. It's been fun talking with you.

Q: Well, we've been soaking up this music for 30 years, so it comes back out on the other side. You've got a home in our hearts. So thank you, Jackson Browne.