PATRICK OGLE: You know this is a gear thing. I have got -- I can't talk to you and not talk to you about the process of writing a song, and you know, everybody -- I've talked to different people about this and everybody says something different obviously, and I think there's no -- you know, everybody's --

GUY CLARK: It’s a very personal thing and there are no rules consequently and you can do anything you want to.

PATRICK OGLE: How do you -- You know, one of the things that people write -- writing for a long time, sometimes running into, their stuff starts to sound the same like they're doing the same thing.

GUY CLARK: Sometimes.

PATRICK OGLE: But I -- You know I mean I am, on the way up here, I was listening to your most recent and your first record, and they don't sound the same.

GUY CLARK: Uh huh.

PATRICK OGLE: And even with more -- There's a difference. How do you write songs over years and years and years and keep it fresh?

GUY CLARK: That's a very good question. It's very difficult and it gets harder every day to write anything that I think is good because mostly I think I don't settle for the same stuff I used to settle for in writing quality. I think I've gotten better and I think I expect more of myself, and consequently I never was a real prolific writer, you know, but I mean it's hard work [LAUGHING], you know. It gets something to how I actually stand up and sing in front of people, you know. So, I just -- That's one of the things about writing. There is no best there is. It's not a competitive sport, and you never get through.

PATRICK OGLE: What's that like, you know, you write a song, you put it on a record, but you still have to go out and play it?

GUY CLARK: Yeah, if you want to.

PATRICK OGLE: You mean it can change?

GUY CLARK: If you want to. Oh yeah, they change completely. I mean the record is just that moment. It's just that time you played it. For me, it has nothing to do with -- Well, I don't -- You know, I change stuff all the time.

PATRICK OGLE: Well you mean also if someone's coming over to see you, if they want to hear a duplication exactly of the record...,

GUY CLARK: They're not going to hear it.

PATRICK OGLE: ...yeah, they can also just go and listen to the record.

GUY CLARK: But it's going to be better than the record. I guarantee you that because I've been doing it every night, but I mean the record I just learned it. [LAUGHING]

PATRICK OGLE: [LAUGHING]

GUY CLARK: That's the problem with that. I've tried recently to know the songs I'm going to record when I go in and hopefully play them on the road for two weeks, and you would just be amazed how much money that will save you. Just being able to go in, sitting on the studio, play it through once or twice, and there it is rather than going back, "Oh well, I can fix that verse. We'll punch that in and then, you know, well it's always...," and you have all this technology you can do it with, which is good if you need it, but it's just like, "Why don't you just learn it and sit down and play it?"

PATRICK OGLE: And every hour that goes by you spend money.

GUY CLARK: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And the people in there that are learning the song, writing the song while doing that, you know, and I just, it's just something that never made sense to me logically, you know. Economically, why would you do that when you can just sit at home for two weeks and go out on the road and learn it and, you know, make money, and then just go into the studio and do it.

PATRICK OGLE: And learn what --

GUY CLARK: And you're playing a live -- basically a live version of it is just, you know, -- and I'd approach it that because I record very simply, you know. I mean there's very few instruments.