You’re gonna laugh when I tell you this, man, but I’m starting to enjoy Eminem.

It was when I saw Iggy Pop, that’s what did it for me. That changed my life pretty much.

I like performers who I know are for real. You can tell, man, there’s an intensity about their stuff. You can tell right away they’re real people, ya know?

We played in Texas about a year ago, at Emo’s, the famous country and western club in Austin. And I figured, well, if I’m finally gonna die onstage, that’s where it’s going to be!

People said that way back in the early days I was probably one of the first rappers; the reason is that I couldn’t sing, so I had to talk! Lou Reed was probably the one who started it all.

John Coltrane – I’ve been listening to the ‘Trane again. It blows you away, because I know more now and I hear more now and I had a life that I’ve lived!

That’s what my music… I’m working on a solo record right now, it’s gonna be more hip-hop than anything, like electronic hip-hop, futuristic hip-hop. I’m probably gonna be rapping on it.

I did a couple songs with this hip-hop guy named Tim Dark. He was working in the same studio I’ve been working in, he heard my music and he said, aw man, I’ve got to do something with you.

But it was great, we sit in the same dressing room where, like, Johnny Cash sat and Willie Nelson and all those guys. That was in itself something amazing – I was on the same space these guys stood on, ya know?

And I learned a lot from working with this kid, and I think he’s gonna be a big star. Remember the name, Tim Dark, because he has something about his voice that’s different from all the other rappers, even though his style is similar.

Experience really does make you better, man.

Marty and I are playing with the same intensity. That’s the beautiful thing, man, we’re actually better now than ever, probably more intense now than ever, tighter now than ever.

That’s something – you laugh about Eminem… It’s funny, man, because I didn’t like him when he first came out, ya know. It seemed like a big joke. But I think the guy’s for real, and I like his lyrics!

But of course it’s always gonna be Suicide, our fingerprints, ya know? You can’t ever get rid of that.

It’s easy for me to say that now, now I’m a father, I’ve got a four-and-a-half year old boy, I’m a different person. Well, I’m still the same person, but I’m different.

We’re just getting better at our trade, man. We know what we’re doing, and the reason why is that we’ve spent 30 years doing it. There’s nothing that can replace that.

But, Eminem… No, I’ve loved rap for a long time, especially when it got out of its first period and became this gangsta rap, ya know this heavy rap thing? That’s when I started to fall in love with it. I loved the lyrics. I loved the beat.

I always said I was never gonna be an entertainer, Suicide was never supposed to be entertainment.

Usually I’m the one who does the covers. And I just said, man, it would be nice to see what somebody else could do, outside of this thing. A fresher look. And I never, in a million years, would have come up with this. Believe me!

I probably won’t be able to hear it until five years from now anyway. That’s when I always hear my own music. It takes five years to sit down with it after not hearing it for a couple of years.

I’m showing some of my sculptures in Holland in the spring, so we’ll see.

Every now and then you think about your life, what you would like to be, you start at Number 1 and you go down to 100. And down at the bottom, 100, was – Stage. Go figure. That would be the last thing. It terrified me, man. But I had to do it.

That’s what so sad about a lot of modern music, in my opinion, so many young bands never stay around long enough to fulfill their ultimate promise. They only get halfway there or a quarter of the way there.

You’re gonna laugh when I tell you this, man, but I’m starting to enjoy Eminem.

That’s why so much of the music today sounds so much alike, because there’s no in-between. So it’s kind of nice to still turn some buttons every now and then.

Lately I’ve been listening to some classical music again, some jazz.