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"FacebookPinterest\n\nIt takes a blatant disregard for irony to name your band The Hold Steady. And even though lead singer Craig Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler are two of the nicest rock stars you&amp;amp;#x2019;ll ever have the privilege of talking to, they haven&amp;amp;#x2019;t been able to avoid the creative flare-ups and drug drama and &amp;amp;#x201C;this album almost didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t happen!&amp;amp;#x201D; plotlines that are standard operating procedure for any long-running rock band. With Tuesday&amp;amp;#x2019;s release of their excellent new album, Teeth Dreams, GQ spoke to both men on the phone about how they&amp;amp;#x2019;ve managed to survive up to this point. Highlights from part one, with Craig\u2014check back tomorrow for part two (and the drug stuff) with Tad:\n\n\n\nCraig, I wanted to ask you about your cat attacking you. Has your face healed? Are you all right?\n\n She hit me pretty hard. I went to the Game of Thrones premiere on Tuesday, and I had a big scab right in the middle of my nose. And what was a bit concerning about it is that only one person asked me about it. And I talked to like twenty people. I was really glad about the guy who asked me about it, because I could explain it to him, where the rest just didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t want to know.\n\nDo you think maybe they were too nervous to ask you about it, because it would be like, well, Craig&amp;amp;#x2019;s got that freaky shit on his face\u2026\n\n Yes! I should have remembered I had it, so I could have been like, &amp;amp;#x201C;Look what my cat did to me!&amp;amp;#x201D; But I forgot. And my girlfriend didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t go to the premiere. She was like, &amp;amp;#x201C;This looks terrible.&amp;amp;#x201D; Those were the words she left me with as I left the house.\n\nDid you get the cat because you wanted a pet, but you were a touring musician and you couldn&amp;amp;#x2019;t get a dog?\n\n Well, yeah, basically. A cat is always a level of commitment removed from a dog. But what happened was, we had a cat, and it passed away in August, and my girlfriend was like, &amp;amp;#x201C;We&amp;amp;#x2019;re not getting another cat.&amp;amp;#x201D; And then we got a mouse. And then we got the new cat, and it caught the mouse in an hour.\n\nDoes your girlfriend go on tour with you?\n\n No, for a variety of reasons, mainly that she wouldn&amp;amp;#x2019;t want to.\n\nIs it harder to go back out on tour when you&amp;amp;#x2019;re older and more set in your ways?\n\n I kind of dig the disconnectedness of it, you know? I like the idea of, maybe you have your phone and your wallet and you&amp;amp;#x2019;re out there.\n\nAre you someone who has deliberately kept your home roots minimal, so that you can continue touring and not worry too much about what&amp;amp;#x2019;s going on back home?\n\n That&amp;amp;#x2019;s part of it. I think I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve kept myself kind of light on my feet because I want to be able to do this, because I do really enjoy it. The other thing is, I got a divorce seven, eight years ago. And my parents were always married, so when I got a divorce I was kind of like, Fuck being the traditional guy. Fuck that. I&amp;amp;#x2019;m going to be slightly off dude.\n\nWhen your marriage broke up, was there any sense of failure on your end, because your folks had stayed together?\n\n Anyone going through a divorce has a sense of failure. I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve heard it both ways. I have a friend who got divorced whose parents were divorced who said, like, &amp;amp;#x201C;When your parents are divorced and you get divorced, you&amp;amp;#x2019;re like, &amp;amp;#x2018;Aw, I didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t want to be that.&amp;amp;#x2019;&amp;amp;#x201D; But then again, I don&amp;amp;#x2019;t know. I only know the way I was, which was, &amp;amp;#x201C;This is pretty much failure. This is the definition of failure.&amp;amp;#x201D; I was kind of young. I was like 28.\n\nWere your parents disappointed at all?\n\n No, they&amp;amp;#x2019;re super supportive. My parents are always really, really cool about everything. They&amp;amp;#x2019;re into the rock thing. They supported me through the divorce.\n\nWhen the breakup happened, did you blame your career at all? Did you feel like, well, this is getting in the way of me being able to make this work?\n\n Maybe a better man would have! [laughs] I kind of was like, Look. I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve got this opportunity, and I think I should be able to take it. I needed to do it to be happy, and if I was not gonna be happy, I wasn&amp;amp;#x2019;t gonna be able to have a good time in any relationship.\n\nI assume you have the rhythms of album releases down pat by now. Every time the new album comes out, are you businesslike? Or do you still have that sort of junior rock star thing where you&amp;amp;#x2019;re like, well, it might sell ten million copies on vinyl!\n\n Yeah. I know exactly what it&amp;amp;#x2019;s gonna be like. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s almost like going into training for it, you know? It&amp;amp;#x2019;s like a boxing match.\n\nI assume there&amp;amp;#x2019;s actual physical soreness the next morning too, when you&amp;amp;#x2019;re like, &amp;amp;#x201C;Oh, Jesus, my shoulder!&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve found that the touring, especially in the bus, is all right. Especially if you keep alcohol consumption reasonable. I think that the thing that exhausts me is the one-offs, like when you fly out on Thursday, play a show Friday, and fly back Saturday. That kind of travel, the whole experience becomes way more about the travel than it does about the show. So that&amp;amp;#x2019;s the part that ends up really exhausting me. I think the touring is like routine, this ritual, that it ends up being kind of comforting.\n\nDo you ever have expectations for yourself because you&amp;amp;#x2019;re now officially a rock star? Do you ever feel any sort of little voice in your head that demands you act like a rock star?\n\n We were just at South By Southwest, and it&amp;amp;#x2019;s like, &amp;amp;#x201C;Hey, do you guys want to take a ride back to the hotel?&amp;amp;#x201D; And it&amp;amp;#x2019;s like, you know what? I don&amp;amp;#x2019;t think I should go back to the hotel quite yet. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s sort of tempting to go read, but it&amp;amp;#x2019;s only 8pm. So I should stay out at least, and go see a band or something. I think there&amp;amp;#x2019;s some commitment to that.\n\nHow have the fans changed as you&amp;amp;#x2019;ve grown?\n\n There&amp;amp;#x2019;s definitely some people that have come in and out, like the kind of people that go to, like, twenty shows in thirty days and sit in the front row every night. And then often you stop seeing them, and you wonder if, like, this was something that got them through this particularly strange time in their lives. We&amp;amp;#x2019;ve created this community, this inclusive thing, and I think sometimes people tap into it during dark times, and when they get to maybe a better place, they go to, like, one show a year.\n\nThen you&amp;amp;#x2019;ve got the guy who at 22 is driving 400 miles to see your next show. Well, you know, he has a baby when he&amp;amp;#x2019;s 27, and suddenly he&amp;amp;#x2019;s mainly going to the shows in his own town.\n\nDo any fans ever get annoying about continuity in the songs and stories with the characters and all that stuff?\n\n You know, I try not to get too into those conversations, because I want people to put their own hopes and dreams in the songs. My best friend from growing up, he was a writer on the show Lost, and I saw how that unraveled into a bunch of negativity.\n\nYeah, I bet that was a joy for him.\n\n &amp;amp;#x201C;What the hell was the polar bear?!&amp;amp;#x201D; There was some real anger I saw on that. And, you know, with our songs, I want people to have their own interpretations, get out what they want. So I try not to get into the corner of the bar three-hour conversation about these characters.\n\nOK, I have some reader questions for you: &amp;amp;#x201C;Does Craig practice his dance moves in the mirror?\n\n Uh, no. I would be better if I practiced in the mirror. But the answer is no.\n\nCan you watch video of your own performances?\n\n I have to sometimes, because they&amp;amp;#x2019;re like, &amp;amp;#x201C;Is this approved? Do you guys approve this, you know, for official stuff?&amp;amp;#x201D; But I think that&amp;amp;#x2019;s a very dangerous hole to go down, to be too aware of what&amp;amp;#x2019;s out there about you.\n\nReader question: &amp;amp;#x201C;Did the plot of &amp;amp;#x2018;Chips Ahoy&amp;amp;#x2019; actually happen?&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n No. Not to my knowledge. That was a story I created.\n\n&amp;amp;#x201C;Has the DEA ever reached out to Craig to help stem the epidemic of drug-taking party girls that he chronicles in his songs?&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n No, the DEA has thankfully been clear of my life.\n\n&amp;amp;#x201C;Do you like the Fake Craig Finn Twitter feed, or have you seen it?&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n I saw a retweet, but again, I don&amp;amp;#x2019;t think I need to get involved. I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve seen some pretty good Craig Finn impersonations, but I think everyone I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve seen lacks a little something.\n\n**Back to my questions: I assume the Twins aren&amp;amp;#x2019;t gonna be all that great this year?\n\n**I&amp;amp;#x2019;m not really particularly optimistic. I hope I get a couple nice days at the ballpark when I&amp;amp;#x2019;m around Minneapolis, but that&amp;amp;#x2019;s about all I can hope for, I think."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/craig-finn-hold-steady-drugs-divorce>