xezene:

Interviewer: So basically, we have one main question, and that is – if you have a cause or issue that you care about, what is it?

Wayne Coyne: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, I really try to speak about – because I’m an older guy and a lot of times I’m talking to younger people – I try to remind them to care about the people you are around. So many times when people are young, they look to some future where they’re going to be rich and life is going to be glamorous and it’s going to be more meaningful and be more important than the life that they’re living right now. And I try to remind them that, you know, look – while you are young, it doesn’t mean that this is just a “stopping-point” for something greater. This can be the great moment of your life; the people you are around, the things that you are doing right now, should matter right now. They’re not just some temporary holding pattern and then your life will go on and be great later. You know, live your great life now! Try to be kind to all creatures, humans, and animals; try to be as curious you can about the world because it’s a wonderful place.

A lot of people, especially older people, will try and tell you sometimes that the world is a horrible, brutal, mean place. It is brutal, but it’s also beautiful, and it’s up to you to find that in the world, and if you can – if you are able to – do what you love. If that’s taking care of your family, you should do that. If it’s pursuing art or music, you should do that. If that’s just being in your community and caring about the things that go on around you, you should do that. But if all of us – you know, especially when we’re young, we have an opportunity to start to do something, and the more you start to do something the more you learn about it, the more experience you get, the more people will believe in you. And by the time you get to be an old guy like me, if you’re lucky, you’ll have done something you truly love and you’ll have made that your whole life.

And so, in fact, if there’s anything I can speak of, it’s only from my own experience, that I’ve been lucky that since I was fifteen or sixteen years old, people around me believed in me and said, “Wayne, you should be a guy in a rock band, you’re weird and you love art and you love music, so you should do that!” And I was always encouraged, and so if anything I try and show that again to the world and say, “Believe in yourself! And do what you love,” and all that. But you have to be kind to people, you have to be kind to them – your community – and, you know, you have to remember that that goes with it, it’s not just “I go first.” You know, that’s a great honor to entertain people and to sing songs for people.

So yeah, that would be my message.

Interviewer: That’s a great message.