When you look back on "Father of Mine," almost 20 years ago, does it feel like you said what you wanted to say? Your songwriting is always unusually open but that one didn't hold back anything it feels like. First of all, when I wrote that song I had no idea it was going to be a single, much less such a huge single. I didn't know that was gonna happen. I never try to pick that because I think that's the devil's work right there, trying to tell what people are gonna like and what they're not gonna like. But when I wrote that song, I needed to get that catharsis. I think most of the best songs in the world come from a selfish place, but they have a universal theme that other people can connect with, and I think that's the case with this song. I think people thought it was a little too expository, a little too personal, and I understand that. But I was actually being nice about my dad. [laughs] I didn't put all of it in there, it got worse than that.

A lot of people have issues like that all the time�they still don't know who they are. That might even be worse, having seen their dad but not being able to break that barrier and get close to him. That would be hard. That's something I fight with my daughters; I'm gone a lot. I try to be present constantly, take time every day when I'm gone and when I'm there. Like I'm keeping them home from school today just because after I'm done with the interviews we're gonna go out and get some breakfast and do some daddy/daughter things just because I've got a date.

There are very few hit songs that are addressed with such complete directness. Eminem comes to mind, particularly the way he swears he wouldn't let his daughter go through what he did. Other rappers too. Yeah, all the stuff you're talking about, it's funny because there's different types of emo. When we were coming up there were bands like Slint and Codeine and they called them emo, and then emo came to mean something else. But as far as just touching into emotions, that goes way back to singer-songwriters, and that's what I grew up with, both hard rock and punk bands, and singer-songwriters. And that's what Everclear's always been, trying to be a blunt between that, because that's my loves and my inspirations and influences.

Did your bandmates feel it was too expository, or the label? Well, my other bandmates have always worked for me, it's always been my band. I didn't even ask what they thought. The label didn't say anything, they thought it was a hit song from the beginning. I think most of the trepidation about it being expository came from me. I didn't think it was too intense to be a song on a record, I didn't think that at all. But I thought that being a single, it might not connect with people, it might put people off. I usually heard from like, guys who were irritated at me because their girlfriends liked me. [laughs] That didn't like the song because they think it's fake or that I made it up or something. I think they had a different agenda.