Billy kicks things off with the first single from the CD, "The Stone": That song has kicked around in different forms for a while; I finally just got it to a place where I didn't hate it anymore, basically. It started off as a very different thing. I think I had to change the title of that song so Josh didn't think he was still working on the same track. There was always something that bugged me about it; it just wasn't moving forward all the time. There was just something that bugged me, and there is heaviness to music that I think is a delicate thing. You can't just be heavy; if it sounds gratuitously heavy or something then it just irks me. So that song was getting heavy for the wrong reasons and it kind of had to be pulled into shape. I think I finally found a place where I felt comfortable with it after years of dicking around.

And with that song, I had written all of the lyrics, but there were just two lines and the chorus that I was kind of shaky on and Johnette from Concrete Blonde co-wrote some lyrics on this record with me. She wrote on "Too Late" but on "The Stone" there were a few lines in there that she helped me flush out. There was a very different sentiment before, the chorus at first was not something I felt I could pull off, and it was more of a maternal thing. So we went back and rehashed the chorus, and I think we came up with something that fits well, this push-pull of protection, a feeling of wanting to protect your loved ones in a way but not being worthy enough with yourself to be able to accept that same kind of love. A lot of these songs are about pushing people away from you and not loving yourself enough to let others love you. - Check out the video for The Stone right here

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