In our humble opinion, Ryan Adams needs a new team of doctors. First, his eyeglass prescription was misdiagnosed, leading to recurring headaches. Then, to alleviate symptoms from cysts in one ear, Adams was prescribed a topical solution that was later proved toxic. Two weeks before the Japanese release of his new album, Jacksonville City Nights (recorded with his band the Cardinals), Adams was forced to cancel their American tour due to his condition. "It's a pain in the ass," says Adams, 30, who's preparing for surgery number four. "I've got a rather large cyst lodged where my ear ends and my temple begins, and one underneath. Right now we're waiting for it to get uninfected enough to get in there and tear some more shit out." Jacksonville, a beautifully mellow collection on which Adams reminisces about his North Carolina hometown and duets with Norah Jones (on "Dear John"), is his second of three albums to be released in 2005. He's also handed over eighteen songs to Cameron Crowe for possible inclusion in his next movie, Elizabethtown. With his girl Parker Posey and his Maltese Gracie hanging nearby, Adams takes questions from his New York apartment.

You love the Grateful Dead. How'd you get turned on?

I got turned on to the Grateful Dead through a friend of mine in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, when I was fifteen or sixteen. I remember being in an abandoned house in the middle of a huge field listening to "Wharf Rat" with my friend Dean. It was a moment I'll never forget. I was thinking, "This music is bigger and more mysterious and grand than what I'm looking at." It reminded me of what Sonic Youth were up to: maximum freedom, but with a song underneath.

You're working on a soundtrack. What songs work perfectly in movies?

I love that Peter Gabriel song ["In Your Eyes"] in Say Anything. Paul Westerberg had that song "Dyslexic Heart" in Singles. I read somewhere that the producers needed him to give them a song and he said, "Cool. Gimme a guitar and a hotel room," and he wrote it in twenty minutes. Maybe we should get him more guitars and more hotel rooms.

In what bar have you written the most songs?

Easily it'd be split between Boardners, on Hollywood and Cherokee in L.A., and Niagara here in New York, on A and 7th. I wrote "Oh My Sweet Carolina" in the back of Niagara, because at that time, before I made Heartbreaker, I had thirty cents to my name. Jesse [Malin, local punk hero and Niagara co-owner] let me come in and get a couple pops, and I'd scribble away. I didn't go in there, get fucked up and expect to walk out with anything. It'd be like my coffee shop, except I'd nurse a beer, look around, catch wind of different conversations or just isolate myself. I tend to need a little white noise when I write.

Is writing new songs your favorite part of the job?

I don't love anything the way that I love writing songs. When I used to wash dishes in Raleigh, or when I had my plumbing job, I'd be dying to get off work so I could write these songs that I was accessing in my head.

Who's the best songwriter that no one's heard of?

How would we know? Off the top of my head, there's a fellow who lives in North Carolina named Kenny Roby that wrote a song called "Rather Not Know." He was in a band called Six String Drag that was around at the same time as Whiskeytown. He's phenomenal. There's Richard Hawley -- from Sheffield, England, I think. And an Irish fellow named Adrian Crowley.

Have you ever played board games with your musical heroes?

It's not like I sit down and play Scrabble with Keith Richards. Chess has become a pretty rockin' deal for the Cardinals. I think Nikolai [Fraitur] from the Strokes is pretty damn good. I actually asked him for some tips the other day. I've also been invited to play in a Texas Hold'Em game with the Strokes guys, but I know better. I've heard of people going over there and getting wiped out. I might as well go over there, plop down my fifty bucks and just drink the beer.

What's your favorite musical landmark in the U.S.?

I love all the old theaters across the country. And I went to play Red Rocks with Phil Lesh and Friends -- that was extreme. And the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was cool -- I spent most of my time looking at the [Jerry] Garcia stuff. I got to see a bunch of his guitars, like Rosebud and Tiger and Wolf.

Have you read Dylan's book Chronicles, Vol. 1?

No. I want to keep him as far away from the real world as possible. He's mythological to me, like Zeus or Thor. I've read a lot about him -- about touring and different records -- but I don't want to dispel all the myths and mysteries that surround some of his stuff, which I think is just absolutely phenomenal, inspiring and righteous.

What are the best records to listen to after getting baked?

Sabbath's Vol 4. Sonic Youth's Sister. Coltrane's Sun Ship. There's a band that I really like with a terrible name -- they're called Anal Cunt. They have a record called Morbid Florists that's really fuckin' awesome. It's out of control and ridiculous. And the Dead's '77 tour. It got really deep.

You love to write while stoned, too?

I don't look at that stuff as a detractor at all. I think it's beautiful and creative. It's a healthy thing to open up your eyes a little bit wider.

How many of the songs on Jacksonville City Nights were written like that?

It's kind of obvious.