Is it hard to balance family life with musician life?
Yes. For a while it’s good. And when you’re married and you go away from home, and then you come home, you have a ‘honeymoon’ for a while, so it keeps the love alive. But you learn to live without each other.
You had your first six children pretty young, within just over a decade.
The result of the ongoing honeymoon. Every kid’s birth was nine months after the end of a tour.
Did it make you grow up fast?
I’ve always said that until you have a child, you’re still a child. The minute you have children you become selfless.
You became a Mormon when you met your first wife.
About four months before I converted I got very drunk at a party. My father says: “You’re a drunk and I’m ashamed to call you my son.” And when I met this girl she said: “I’m a Mormon… It’s like any church, but we don’t drink or smoke or do drugs or anything.” And I said: “I’m in.” To this day I’ve never done any drugs. I get my highs from music and really great sex and delicious food once in a while. And having a really great family is such a huge part of that. I have eight children and twenty-five grandkids. The kids can’t believe grandpa goes on stage and rocks out like a lunatic.
