You never know when you're gonna come across a sick skate spot, or a skate park you wanna stop at, so as long as I'm not injured, I'm always gonna have my board on me, and my skate shoes, and whatever I need to go out there and get a little session in.
I'm a show pony, and I don't get to skate with girls doing triple Axels every single day. I skate with little babies who are working on their single Axels while trying not to hit them on the ice.
From 8 to 19, I was skateboarding every single day. That was my life. I worked at a skate shop. I watched skate videos.
My dad was really controlling and he did want me to skate every single day. I would say he did it in a little bit of a strict way, which probably wasn't necessary because bottom line I loved skateboarding and that's all I wanted to do anyway.
I literally used to skate every single day. Like, there was not a day I didn't skate.
My dad has always been such a great dad, and he's brought so much culture to my life. He dragged me to see every single movie at the cinématheque as a kid. I saw everything from Star Wars to Bergman.
When I was 13 or 14, I took seven months off from touring. I did a lot of weekend gigs in Louisiana. We have fairs and festivals every weekend. But I took seven months off. That's when I really started digging deep. I wrote a couple songs that year that I still play every now and then for people.
When I was a kid, I was playing in various bands - amateur bands, garage bands, weekend bands, you name it, around the area. At some point, I just wanted to try the whole 'Beatle tribute band' thing, so I found a local band that was doing that.
My dad was good friends with the Bad Medicine Blues Band - one of the only blues bands in Fargo, as you can imagine! He took me out to see them play when I was 12 years old and I was really inspired by their guitar player, Ted Larsen.
I remember my dad took my ice skates. One day I asked my mum: 'Where are my ice skates?' because I loved to skate in the winter. And she said through tears: 'Dad is selling them now... we don't have money for this week.'
I was raised by a single dad, so I've always just kind of liked "guys" stuff. I think my dad just took me to the things he was interested in.
I strive to do my best every single time and I think that's something the skate community knows about me and appreciates.
I was in band that played mostly covers for a while, and the bands that we would cover were, like, the alternative rock bands of that day: we did a Jane's Addiction song and a Faith No More song. All the kind of alternative radio of that time, the late '80s, basically.
I don't care if I am doing music: my son comes with me every weekend. If I'm on the West Coast, he'll come fly and be with me. If I'm on the East Coast, I get my son every weekend. It doesn't matter where I'm at - show, no show, whatever. Break or no break. I have my son every summer and every weekend while he's in school.
I remember me and my brother would watch 'Beavis and Butthead' or 'South Park,' but we'd be all secret about it because we didn't want our dad to know. And then before I know it, I'm in fourth grade and me, my brother, and my dad are watching 'South Park' together.
I hung out with all the guys in my neighborhood when I was little... I would, like, skateboard and go to skate parks, like, every day and do motor cross, like, every weekend, and I was kind of one of those girls.