One of the great things about young people is that they do question, that they do care deeply about justice, and they they have open minds.

If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!

I'm in this band to give volume to various struggles throughout the world. To me, the tension in this band is a minimal sacrifice.

I lived [in Irvine], but I never felt totally accepted as one of these rich white suburban kids. I wasn't economically deprived like so many of my Chicano brothers and sisters, but I felt the tension and the rejection--and that's when I started getting into hip-hop, started break-dancing. `The Message,' `Rapper's Delight,' Run-DMC...that was what was happening around that time.

You can't ignore what some bands have done. I know that from my own experience, from the way my life was changed by F**k Armageddon, This Is Hell by Bad Religion. I know our record will be in a bin next to Lionel Richie--but so are John Coltrane, KRS-1 and Boogie Down Productions, and Public Enemy.

Inside Out was the first band I ever fronted. I channeled all my pain through that band. It was about completely detaching ourselves from society to see ourselves as...as spirits, and not bowing down to a system that sees you as just another pebble on a beach. But what Inside Out went through were a ton of lineup changes.

Brothers and sisters, our democracy has been hi-jacked. Brothers and sisters, all of our total freedom in this country is over, so long as it is controlled by corporations. Brothers and sisters, we are not going to allow these streets to be taken over by the Democrats or the Republicans!

I feel that it is now necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed. It is no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us collectively as a band, and from my perspective, has undermined our artistic and political ideal.