"Rock & Roll Rebel" was recorded in Belgium while on tour with the first album. It was an early potential title track for the second record but when I thought about it I realized it fit better thematically on the first record. I then had an idea for a rock/sci-fi movie for it but that remains in the idea stage.

I have half a Broadway show version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" which will probably never see the light of day either. Everybody liked it a lot but when the Disney movie came out all the producers I played it for got nervous and ran for the hills.

Over the next couple of months I'd like to release a few things like "Demolition 23" and Jean Beauvoir's "Crown of Thorns" record just because they're cool records and I'd like to make them available, but it will depend on how well "Born Again Savage" does.

Uncle Jam wants you!

I also like "popular standard" singers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, and Billie Holiday, some jazz like Miles Davis (other than his jazz/rock fusion stuff of the 60's), Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven, some big bands like Ellington, Basie, and Benny Goodman, and a lot of regional "ethnic" or "world" music beginning with late 60's/early 70's reggae and continuing through the years to include various local folk or folk/pop music from Central and South America to Africa to China. Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time. The play was great and he managed to improve it for the movie. I'd love to get a second shot at some of my stuff. I like the Russian classical guys like Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov too.

It's not fair to compare music being made today with music from the 60's or earlier in the century. It was one long renaissance period that witnessed the birth of many new styles and hybrids within the larger art form of music starting with field hollers turned into country blues by Son House all the way to Led Zeppelin with Louis Armstrong, Robert Johnson, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Rolling Stones in between.

Why?

Immigration; slavery; the tradition of live performance; the concept of family; the concept of ethnic tradition; little or no T.V.; no lip synching except in movies occasionally; new use of old instruments (guitar, drums); first use of new energy sources (electricity); the art of songwriting; the folk and blues tradition; no MTV; cultural identity; no mass media; not much to do; money wasn't everything; the significance of the church; the significance of radio; the passion of religion; time moved slower than the human mind giving it the opportunity to learn things more permanently and experience life more deeply; little or no corporate giants feeding off the lowest common denominator; pride in one's work; no digital music; fewer and better trained artists; less choices; smaller venues; the first integration and cultural exchange of Europe and Africa; the birth of consciousness; the release of emotion in a culture of stoic repression; rebellion against an orderly, organized, pre-destined, limited, conformist life; stronger competition; artists made music because they loved it or were compelled to do it - not because it was a business opportunity; and bunch of other reasons.

Of my own stuff, the latest is usually my favorite but it's all so different it depends on what mood I'm in. Born Again Savage will always have a special place in my heart because it's the first traditional rock record I've ever made.

Demolition 23 is my favorite of the Written/Production things. I like the two Gary Bonds songs "Daddy's Come Home" and "Last Time" a lot and the reunion with Southside "Better Days" album too.

The thing we did with Peter Gabriel on the Sun City album "No More Apartheid" was probably the weirdest and coolest thing I've ever done because of the highly unusual circumstances.

The two songs I specifically wrote for movies have a special thing for me for completely different reasons. They were both for director Chris Columbus and the first, "All Alone on Christmas," gave me a chance to finally work with my long time friend Darlene Love, who remains to this day the best singer no record company will sign, and also gave me the unusual challenge of writing a Christmas song.

The second, "The Time of Your Life," is the perfect example of what my post-political songs could be. By that I mean I was able to integrate my deepest spiritual and philosophical ideas into a non-political context and it's one of my favorite songs I've ever written. The circumstances of a recording will color how you feel about it sometimes and "Time" was one of those. I recorded it in like four different countries and got a chance to use my friends in Bon Jovi along with my Italian gang I had used with Massimo Priviero a few years earlier.

Very few people in a position of power have ever put their faith on the line with me.

The Rolling Stones at the Academy of Music with Brian Jones
The Rascals at the Keyport Roller Drome
The Byrds at Convention Hall, Asbury Park (their limo stopped right next to me going in and I looked down and McGuinn looked up at me through those famous glasses and all I could manage to say was "Bells of Rhymney" and they did it)
The Beatles at Shea Stadium
The first Jeff Beck Group at Fillmore East
Jimi Hendrix Experience at some college cafeteria in North Jersey
Hendrix's Band of Gypsies New Years Night at the Fillmore
Led Zeppelin at the Schaefer Festival in Central Park
The Who with Keith Moon wherever it was
Sam and Dave somewhere in the woods of New Jersey in the early 70's
I could go on.

More recently - Prince's Sign of the Times tour in Sweden, the first Page/Plant tour with the Egyptian orchestra, the Brian Setzer Orchestra at the Hammerstein Ballroom, and Iggy Pop anywhere, anytime.

I'd take the odds.

The fact that Rage Against the Machine exists and is commercially successful! certainly gives one hope. They cover some interesting issues, check them out.

If somebody had some enthusiasm about me doing something, and it was something I felt I could do, and I could find the time to do it, I would probably consider it. I could probably get better odds if I ran in the Kentucky Derby, but you never know. Let's just say if the Sopranos lasts forever I will not be an unhappy man.

I have a lot of favorite directors. Marty Scorsese, Michael Mann, John Woo, Jonathan Demme, John Herzfeld, too many to name really.