You’ve previously said you were apprehensive about touring in the States. Why is that?

One of the reasons why I didn’t tour here for quite a while is because I was very, very outspoken in my opposition to the Iraq war and very critical of the Bush administration and I guess I was sort of gray-listed. I wouldn’t say black-listed, but gray-listed because a lot of these big corporations were very conservative and they specifically didn’t want to provide any coverage or support to artists who were not supporting the Bush administration. You can see it with a lot of artists; my friend Serge [Tankian] with System of a Down, a very similar thing happened to him.