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I want the audience to be so involved in the sweep of the music.

If the audience walks out of a concert thinking, What a wonderful experience, then we have done our job.

In the music world, concerts unfold strictly according to plan. But, as I'd been finding out, in the book world, things keep changing by the second.

Before every show, we get into a circle, hold hands, and someone makes a speech. Most bands are too cool for that.

I wish I had a really cool, esoteric answer, but what the process is to me is going onstage night after night after night after night until I get a new hour. And then once that hour is solidified and recorded, I move on.

Right now, I'm thinking in terms of just having a good band, man. Having a good act for the stage. Being a good performer, you know? Connected to that is future recordings, and future tunes, that kind of stuff.

When you keep the caliber of musicians very high in the band, people are going to come and go. Some of them will be people who have to try various things, it's natural.

The band will be going along, and somebody or another will say, 'I want to go off and do a solo career.'... They come back, and other people come in.

My only general rule was to steer away from things I played with the band over the past couple of tours. I was interested in re-shaping the Rising material for live shows, so people could hear the bare bones of that.