Is the city known for having a large, progressive gay community?
It is, I believe. I sort of live in the middle of it, and there are five or six distinct gay neighborhoods, in a city of a half million people. So there’s a good sense of community, which is important. I don’t know how comfortable I would be living in a city that didn’t have that to offer. It’s a young town, which keeps the turnover happening, which is both good and bad.
You write on your blog about your weightlifting routine. Do you feel it’s a big contributor to your emotional health?
Yeah, definitely. Since the beginning of 1999, that’s one of the first things I did when I got “out of the van,” after 20 years of being “in the van.” I started to take better care of myself, quit smoking, started eating right, and started being a lot more physically active.
You quit Hüsker Dü 20 years ago. What do you remember about that time?
Just picking up the phone and saying, “I quit!” It was a good feeling.
Was it difficult?
Yeah, but the next day, it was, like, amazing. It was like, “Oh my God, no more of that. Excellent. Now what do I do?” The absurd level at which things were operating at that point made it very easy to walk away. I thought, “Anything would be better than this.” But there was nothing waiting in the wings to replace it, which is the great part of the journey. It wasn’t as if, “Oh I’m leaving this for a better job.” It was just, “I’m leaving this.”
What were some of the absurd things that were happening?
You’ll have to read the book for that. Some day I’ll write a book.
