Q & A Part 1 | Q & A Part 2
Q & A Part 3 | Q & A Part 4
23. How much of an impact will the Internet have on the way records are made and sold? Do you plan to continue to sell records through your website? Would you consider the Born Again Savage Internet sales a success?
  It looks like people will be downloading music one song at a time. There will probably be a 30 to 60 second sample, you'll enter your credit card number, and for a dollar or whatever, you'll download a song. That is of course unless you're stealing it for free via Napster, Gnutella, Spinfrenzy, Audiogalaxy, CuteMX, iMesh, or some other company that is, knowingly or not, fencing stolen goods.

The Internet could conceivably be the end of what is left of popular music as we've come to know it. The concept of doing an "album" of songs that somehow relate to each other and perhaps add up to a coherent musical statement is pretty much over already and downloading one song at a time will probably kill it entirely.

Performers and songwriters have a hard enough time collecting money they are owed as it is (after they've already been robbed by blatantly unfair typical record company contracts). Every song that is stolen will hurt the great majority of artists that need every record sale to count. Keep in mind only 5% of all recording artists, at the most, actually make money.

It will be the songwriters that are hurt the most from stolen music because they don't receive big advances or see live performance money or merchandise sales. The one and only advantage songwriters have is they see a "mechanical," legally protected royalty from every record sale (as opposed to performers who see royalties only after the record company has deducted all costs, advances, etc. from the recording artists' small percentage as opposed to taking expenses off the top as it should be. In other words, recording artists never see royalties unless they sell a lot right away). So every song stolen eliminates the songwriter's only income. If it happens often enough songwriters, and eventually recording artists, will have to find something else to do.

We will continue to make Born Again Savage available on the website but I'm not sure we'll be able to release anything else right now. So far there has been very little Internet sales and I've talked to many others who have had the same experience.

It has been fascinating reading the interviews with Napster users. It may be an effort by the journalists to present a balanced picture, but in every article at least half of the users openly talk about downloading music for free and having absolutely no ethical problem with that. This says something profound about our culture right now. In a country where money has always been our dominant religion, the last five years have been the financial equivalent of Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Kwanzaa. But before we start to criticize our young people for their ignorance, insensitivity, or lack of morality, we must recognize that they are growing up in a gold rush culture where there is simply no context for ethical consideration. They are growing up in a spiritually bankrupt society, where art, in all of its forms, has never meant less.

24. During what timeframe were the songs for Born Again Savage written?
  During the "Revolution" tour and just after. Fall and winter 1989.
25. I've read many times that Little Steven was responsible for the "Asbury Park" sound (e.g., horn arrangements). Do/did you ever play any instruments other than guitar?
  Not really. I play enough piano to write songs on it but that's about it. A little mandolin also. I took sitar lessons for a while which I'd like to get back to, but I never really learned it.

I don't read or write music so when I do horn or string arrangements I sing the parts to an arranger who writes out the parts for the musicians.

26. Are you going to be able to find any time to go on a tour of your own?
  Unfortunately not.
27. Your essay writings indicate that you're a passionate man, a man in search of a road to a better world. I find this journey is one that may never be realized but must continue to be taken. Good only comes with work, understanding, and self sacrifice. Do you feel you do everything you can to realize "good" and if so, how do you maintain the energy level, over the long term, to keep truckin'? Also, how do you personally balance material success with spiritual fulfillment?
  Well I'm always working on it. Some days are better than others. All you can do is try your best to live by whatever value system you have decided reflects your essence. While doing that, I think it's a good idea to remain flexible enough to constantly learn new things about oneself and life in general.

I don't believe trying to do the right thing has to do with self sacrifice. It has to do with discipline.

Energy? Grains, fruit, and vegetables - no meat, chicken, fish, or dairy - and minimize "white" carbohydrates (white bread, white rice) and sucrose (Funny Bones and everything else worth living for); Ginger tea; Yoga, daily, for stretching (and philosophy); some kind of daily aerobic exercise; whatever amount of solid, silent sleep your body needs; and as much sex as humanly possible.

Schedule your time, make the right choices, and have the courage to learn about yourself. You only have so much energy in a day (or in a life) so how you use every moment counts. We all like to allow for a certain amount of spontaneity in our lives, but spontaneity can only be satisfying when it exists within a disciplined life. The more we can plan, and the further ahead we plan, the better. It is the most effective and efficient use of energy. You can schedule in doing nothing, walking around thinking or not thinking, taking a drive, experiencing life, whatever. But without a plan, a schedule, guidance, and discipline, spontaneity and doing nothing eventually becomes meaningless confusion and non-productive chaos.

Consciously learn something everyday. Consciously teach something everyday. Do not be concerned with events you have no control over. Discover and stay within your limitations. Do not let what is unpopular or unusual keep you from doing the right thing. Learn from failure but do not dwell on it. Do not carry hatred or anger around with you. At the appropriate time and in the appropriate way use it to be productive until you can get rid of it. Develop useful habits. Try to do something to help someone or benefit the planet everyday no matter how small or insignificant a gesture it might be and don't tell anyone.

Focus and balance. Taoist philosophy, and others, teach us to try to live every moment completely. There is no past or future, obligations or guilt, time concerns or primal doubts. Nothing but right now. This is a lifelong quest and the most difficult of all the disciplines, but all we can do is continue to seek and grow and keep trying our best, without trying of course. It is complicated but balance is the key. Physical, Mental, and Spiritual balance. Work and Family balance. Internal and External balance. Human and Nature balance. Science and Art balance. Etc. Yin and Yang.

So that's energy. Do I do all these things? Not often enough.

The bottom line is if you love what you do, you will find the energy to accomplish it. Discover what you are passionate about and find a way to do it.

Material success has managed to elude me so far so I can't answer that question with any certainty. It used to frighten me but doesn't anymore. The more you have, the more you can give. Do you need "more" to give? No. The higher your "celebrity capital" the more people you can reach and the more you can accomplish if you do your homework and know how to organize. Do you need any celebrity capital at all to help people or to teach or give advice? No. Material success doesn't change people, it reveals them. How you make your money is what counts, not how much you make. Generally speaking. I believe that well earned - non-exploitative - sharing along the way - material success is a good thing. The only definitive way to learn that material success is meaningless is to have it. Fear of success, and how we define success may have nothing to do with the material, is just as dangerous as fear of failure.

29. When are you going to make a new video for all the fans?
  The fact that I haven't is due to my own lack of discipline. There is no excuse really. Between being Silvio Dante on the Sopranos and a guitar player in the E Street Band, I have been unable or unwilling to revisit Little Steven. The last time I was completely him was on a stage in Rome in 1989 playing to 150,000 people. I talked about it in one of the essays. I had a revelation that night that revealed to me that I was not satisfied doing what I was doing. It was a profound spiritual crisis that I have not yet fully recovered from, but I am taking what I feel are the necessary steps to come back, hopefully, stronger.
30. Will you be working with Michael Monroe again?
  There is nothing planned. I am quite proud of the "Demolition 23" record we did together and I hope we can re-release it someday on the Renegade Nation website.
31. What is the significance/symbol/whatever of the silver ring you always wear on your middle finger on your right hand?
  It's a secret.
32. When you were thrown out of Disneyland for the way you were dressed did you have feelings of prejudice against you or did you accept their reason that the way you were dressed could have reflected you were a member of a gang? I personally was upset to hear that such a humane man was treated so wrongly and I assume it was a public embarrassment.
  Disneyland was famous for its prejudice.

They wouldn't let "long hairs" in the place in the 60's.

I wasn't that gang-like. And anyway gang members are only dangerous when they are with their gang.

It wasn't embarrassing. It was funny really.

And what a lot of nerve after modeling the Pirates of the Caribbean after me!

33. Who was your most major influence in life and music?
  Same thing for both. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Yardbirds, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Ravi Shankar, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Albert King, Robert Johnson, Son House, Miles Davis, Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, the Four Seasons, Dion, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov (among others).

Later in life I've also been influenced by Siddhartha Gautama (Shakyamuni or Sakyamuni, the Buddha), Paramahansa Yogananda, Lao-Tzu, Jesus Christ, Arthur Rimbaud, Joseph Campbell, Bertrand Russell, Nikos Kazantzakis, Allen Ginsberg, Deepak Chopra, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, and my dog Jake (among others).

Starting out of course it was my Mother, my Father, my Grandmother (Nana Lento), and Grandfather (Sam Lento). They shaped me and remain my strongest influences.

34. What direction do you predict music will go towards? Can Rock and Roll return?
  Synthesis. Hybrids. A little of this with a little of that.

Generally speaking, with an exception here or there, the quality and cultural significance of music will continue to diminish as it has since the 60's.

Everybody talks about a "cycle" where rock's popularity comes and goes and will come again. I hope that is correct but I don't see it. Since the Sixties, rock has always been there. It hasn't come and gone, it has just meant less and less every decade. It can't "return" to the way it was because the infrastructure that supported it is gone. Namely radio, clubs, tour support, local promoters that are not owned by SFX, and an audience getting out of the habit of supporting live music.

Who knows? New media will happen, new venues, new ways of presenting live performance.

We're going to have to get used to many more artists with much smaller audiences.

There will always be some traditional Rock and Roll somewhere.

Probably underground and hard to find but it will be there.

35. For someone not familiar, what are the basic premises/objectives of Buddhism (I know nothing about this stuff)?
  I recommend reading the Dhammapada (a favorite translation of mine is by Eknath Easwaran, Nilgiri Press, Box 256, Tomales, California 94971), and The Buddha in Daily Life: An Introduction to the Dynamic Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin by Richard Causton, Rider Books/Ebury Press - an imprint of Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V2SA.

I am no academic but let me try and summarize the basics. And whatever you do - don't quote me!

Siddhartha Gautama (AKA Shakyamuni) was born around 563 B.C. (BCE now), the son of the King of the Sakya (or Shakya) clan at the foot of the Himalayas along the border between India and Nepal.

He walked away from a wealthy, secure place in life to try to learn how to defeat decline, decay, and death. After years of fasting, meditation, research, and study, he attained enlightenment. He taught his first disciples these basic tenets of what would become Buddhism.

The Four Noble Truths:

  1. All life is suffering.

    Life is constantly changing and change never satisfies desire.

  2. There is a cause for the suffering.

    The demands we make on life are based on selfish desire. Desire is never satisfied for very long. Permanent pleasure unmixed with anything unpleasant doesn't exist.

  3. There is a cure.

    The fires of selfishness must be extinguished.

  4. The cure is the eightfold path:

    Right understanding, right purpose, right speech, right conduct, right occupation, right effort, right attention, and right meditation.

Now all that was one of Shakyamuni's first Sutras (teachings). He taught throughout his life with a 'give the people as much as they can deal with' attitude. I'm trying to keep this simple but I find it necessary to mention the Lotus Sutra which was one of his last Sutras like 50 years later. It is the big one and is deeper than I can explain or even understand. It goes into all kinds of things including the very concept of time and space but one thing I think is important to mention relating to understanding Buddhism. (And keep in mind there is a hundred different sects and variations on the philosophy so this is just me talking.)

The Four Noble Truths can suggest at first glance that desire itself is a bad thing. The Lotus Sutra suggests that what is significant is how one's desire is used. It is about focus and balance and applying the philosophy in combination with one's own individual gifts in everyday practical living. In other words it's not all about monks in sackcloth on a mountaintop waiting to move on to the 10th level of existence and leave the planet, although that is part of the wide world of Buddhism.