Life in the Slow Lane

No. There are parts of the world, of society, that are evolved, that are beautiful. But there is an incredible amount of junk. I don't mean drugs. I mean just junk. We're not as evolved as we think we are. In some respects, we're no more evolved than the wild animals in the forest. They don't kill each other just for the hell of it. They don't pollute the planet for their own gain. We're supposed to be the thinking, reasoning animal. I'm not so sure.

Do you worry about the world, and the country, that your children will inherit?

Yes. We have no respect for our institutions any more. Government isn't necessarily a bad thing; it is just full of bad people. I don't want my children to march in lock step with the status quo or be slaves to any institution. I want them to have questioning minds, to question authority. But there is a balance to be struck between that and participation in institutions and traditions. It's a question of living in both worlds with a healthy skepticism.

As a parent, are you prepared for the time when you will hate the kind of music your kids are listening to?

No, I'm not prepared for that. Because I don't want to prejudge. I know they will listen to things I don't like. And I'm sure they'll grow out of it.

The only thing that will irritate me is if they are more enamored of a trend or fad than of the actual music. But kids go through that stage. It's their version of community, their version of self-image. It's tough being a kid. So I'll be OK with that.

My parents were totally cool with me. They didn't object to anything I wanted to listen to, as long as I went to the other end of the house. They never gave me a hard time about my hair, never told me I shouldn't be a musician.

Was that unusual for Linden, Texas?

Yeah, but we had an unusual little town. My friend Richard Bowden, one of the trombonists [in my band now] — his house was a haven for musicians. Richard's mom and dad would stay up until one in the morning, just hanging out with us and playing music in the living room. They let us practice in the living room. In fact, Richard's dad was in a band with us for a while.

It was an extraordinary situation. We would hold dances at the American Legion Hall, and the parents of the guys in the band would take the tickets and sell the soft drinks. My mom and dad would dance when there was a slow number. My dad was a pretty good dancer.

Do you go back to Linden much?

My mother is still there. She lives alone — well, not alone. She has thirteen dogs. She takes homeless dogs off the street. She's almost eighty-four and still drives. So I go back and see people, do a little fishing. I have some pasture-land that I look after. I have a wetlands science institute in east Texas that I started in '93, the Caddo Lake Institute. There's the most beautiful lake there, where I grew up fishing with my dad. Some of the poorest counties in Texas are there. We have instituted environmental-education programs, both in public schools and in the colleges. It's been rough going, but there have been some positive results.

As a native Texan, how do you feel about the prospect of President George W. Bush Jr.?

Horrified. I don't think the man's qualified in any way to be president. He hasn't done anything in Texas. Texas is one of the most polluted states in the union. We have one of the highest teen-pregnancy rates in the nation. We have more than a million hungry children in Texas. Our public-school system is a shambles.

It's a joke. I wish the American people would snap out of it — do their homework, look at the record. It's not that hard to find.

What is your opinion of Al Gore?

There are some flaws there. It's never a perfect choice, is it? But given the two candidates, I much prefer Gore, not only because of his environmental concerns but because he has been at the center of things for the past eight years. With Bush, there is no there there. The emperor has no clothes. I don't think he's an evil person. I think his interests lie in special interests, as was the pattern with his old man.

You were in the studio with the Eagles last summer. Are you working together on a new album?

We recorded a few tunes — most of them songs written by other people, as a warm-up. We did a Richard Thompson song, "Dry My Tears and Move On." And we started writing some tunes of our own, but nothing got finished.

The prospects of bringing that to fruition are fifty-fifty. There were some differences of opinion — about methodology, who to work with, where to work. I don't want to go into great detail. I felt the way we were going wasn't very forward looking. We were falling back into old patterns.

But it seems the Eagles are never really over for you.

There's always a possibility that on some bright, sunny morning, we'll all wake up, be of like mind and proceed in the same direction together. [Pauses, then smiles] For at least five minutes. If we can string enough of those five-minute segments together, we'll have something [laughs]. That could take another century.

[From Issue 843 — June 22, 2000]