So, so what are some of the, uh, in the umbrella of career, some of the things that you wish that you could do without in your career?

I think about this a lot, and the reason I'm pausing, one, I want to give you an honest answer, and two, I wonder sometimes if it's what I would want to do without in my career or what I would want to improve within myself so that I'm not as affected in a negative way by just the ways that it is, if that makes any sense.

You know, there's, I mean, it's sort of easy to, okay, let me take it from the less easy and then I'll go to the easy and then maybe edit this or not.

If I could speak to myself as a younger person or myself as a boy, like I would really try to impart that there is no mountaintop with any of this that you somehow achieve or arrive to and then you feel whole and full.

That what I have found, and I think what many find, is that there are many ups and downs and lefts and rights.

And that I've been fortunate where I have achieved some of these sort of mountaintops.

And when they're happening, maybe they feel good, or maybe I'm freaked out by them when they're happening.

Did, did you have any, any experiences like that?

And it's a great way to open that song, which we'll hear now, On Fire.

[singing] What can I say? You've blown me away.

I'm on fire.

On fire.

What can I do to get closer to you? I'm on fire.

Let me show you my love and devotion.

My love is deeper than the depths of the ocean.

In live in Studio A, we're gonna close it out with that great, great song, Dance On Through.

[laughs]

My drummer to this, there's no, no lies detected in that.

Okay, let's start with this.

M- one of my favorite bands of all time i- is the Violent Femmes, and when I was first starting and making a record in my early 20s, I wanted to do, like, um, pull from, like, punk rock and bluegrass and country, and I'm, I'm there in the, in my friend's downstairs studio who I just met, who was recording a record and playing drums.

His name's Malachi DeLorenzo.

I said, "I wanna do a record like a Violent Femmes-inspired kind of vibe." And then my other buddy pulled me aside, and he goes, "Do you know that Mal's dad is the original drummer in the Violent Femmes?" And I go, "Oh my God.

I had no idea." So Malachi, my drummer and dear, also soul mates friend for, uh, two decades, his dad played in the Violent Femmes, was on all those classic records.

... that you were a born entertainer?

I just, I, I, I just not the, the God of the Old Testament.

I understand.

But with him talking about God, he says, I'm paraphrasing here, but that there's, uh, there's many paths to God, and I like that personally.

Some people I know will vehemently disagree with that, and that's fine.

I think what we do, and this isn't taking me or you too seriously, but I take the work that we do seriously, and that there is a divine element there, that it is really...

It's important within a society for the human animal to gather and connect, and to feel this sort of higher vibration and energy through comedy, music, art, whatever it might be, dance, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I just want to bring that level of, like, commitment, and dare I say, like, love to the performance, where there's a, a possibility of something almost divine taking place.

Yep.