A big part of my life is music education because it changed my life - but arts academics and athletics should all be equally treated in the school.
The last thing that should happen is funding cut for education; it should be increased. We need to put more money towards education and anything else is abusive.
Just so people know the Silverlake Conservatory of Music is not at all about celebrity or fame or being a star. It's an academic music school.
The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.
Anything worth doing good takes a little chaos.
We were these arty punks from Hollywood. I considered myself an intellectual.
I'm always put in the unfortunate position of asking people to donate money and people I know in bands to play benefit concerts and all this stuff.
Kids deserve arts and it's just as important as science math history English or athletics.
We were at the dark end of the L.A. punk scene and that scene was full-on and violent and aggressive and wild and intense.
Outside of a couple of times I ran without eating right or being too tired I always feel great after I run.
Running opened up something beautiful in my life. I try to send the energy all over my body. I love the feeling of it.
I love my life and my mistakes and my triumphs - all of it.
My whole musical life has been an educational process and I'm just furthering my education and filling in the blanks. There's stuff that I want to know that I don't know.
I went to school and studied music for a year at USC which unlocked a bunch of doors for me in terms of my relationship to music.
I had a friend who had been teaching music for a long time and he knew a bunch of teachers so I just put up the money and started a school.
When Hillel died it was during one of the happiest times of my life. I was married and completely in love and had a baby on the way.
Ethiopia is such a great country beautiful place.
Playing music is a beautiful thing. But listening to music is just as great.
I just lucked into this weird little obscure cameoesque film career. I just love being a part of film history.
When I was in school you could pick any instrument you want and they'd teach you how to play it. That changed my life. I loved playing music in school and it sent me on my path as a musician.
I grew up with all these old jazz guys in the '70s in L.A. and they grew up idolizing Charlie Parker Charles Mingus Lester Young - all of these incredible musicians.
Being a dad and being in the Red Hot Chili Peppers and all the stuff I have to do... The trumpet requires a lot of diligence and I haven't had the time.
I studied chord theory and started playing the piano.
For me music was the only reason I went to school. I was kind of a street kid in a lot of trouble committing crimes and stuff. Music gave me something to focus on.
You teach your kids about your beliefs and tell them what you think is right and the conclusions that you've come to from living in the world and then they can make their own decisions.
The Silverlake Conservatory is a nonprofit music school in Los Angeles where we teach music mostly to kids but to people of all ages - people who are old people with beards all kinds of people.
We must improvise and we must experiment and we must do things that might go wrong and everything we bring - the people and the equipment - must serve us in that goal.
When I first heard about Twittering I thought it was the most disgusting thing I'd ever heard of in my life. It's like the devil: the idea that your personal life is there for everybody.
The most important thing to me with any politician is that they don't start wars but education is a big part of that too because educated people are less likely to do stupid violent things.
It's so easy to fall into a comfortable groove in life where you do the things that you like and because of that often times we don't grow or change because we're not pushing ourselves.
As a musician I'm about expressing what's inside and I think everyone has a song in them that they need to get out whatever their gig is.
I worked full time jobs basically doing manual labor until I could make enough money supporting myself as a musician.
I was on a path that could've really led to disaster and the one thing for me that really kept me focused and gave me something to believe in and a sense of self-worth and a discipline was music.
I was raised to think that rock was music for ignorant people who didn't think for themselves.
If you live a rebellious lifestyle then you rebel against things because they go against your ideals and the integrity of who you are as a person.
I got my love of jazz from my stepfather who was a jazz musician.
I love literature deeply. I view books as sacred things and in writing my story I'm going to do my best to honor the form that has played such a huge part in shaping who I am.
We always write way more than we put on a record. We always write a lot-lot.
When I was a kid and it was time to go to college I thought 'College is for people who don't have the street smarts to make it on their own - get in a band get in a van and get rockin'.
When something comes up and it's interesting and I have the time I'll do it.
My father was out of my life when I was pretty young - when I was 7 years old he was gone. I didn't see him for the rest of my childhood.