In the 70s, what thrash was there? Punk came on, and that was cool. But there was no thrash. There were dinosaur big bands, and that was great. Those were my influences.
Without intermediate artists, music is what "American Idol" decides is great or made by the very poor, because Sharon Osbourne's made everything free. No, we have to support our local artists. It's just that simple. Otherwise, we will have no art.
Ian MacKaye was in London while I was living there. We both decided that even though we had very different lifestyles, we had the same mentality - politically, and in a lot of other different ways. His statement was, "We're going to the same place, except you're taking a taxi, and I'm driving my own car." That's me and Ian MacKaye's relationship. I love him, he's great.