In August of 2006, BlueRodeo.com asked its members to submit questions for Jim Cuddy to answer. Below are those questions and Jim's answers.

1. Was making this solo record easier or harder than making the previous one?

Making this record was more difficult because I was more aware of what I was doing.  The last time I just hurtled forward.  With this album I also understood what kind of record I wanted to make, whereas last time I just let it happen, so it was a little more difficult accomplishing it this time.

2. Will you be making one or more videos for your new solo album? Have you already shot one for "Pull Me Through?" If so, when will it be released?

Yes, I have made one for “Pull Me Through,” which will be released this week.  I hope to make a video for “Married Again” as well, and then we’ll see.

3. When you start writing a new song, at what point do you decide whether it's going to be a Blue Rodeo or a Jim Cuddy Band song or do you decide that before you even start?

I decide those things more in terms of schedule, so once BR was out touring and I knew we weren’t going to make a record till January 2007, I knew the songs that I was writing at that point would be for my solo record.

4. Can you explain your approach to songwriting? Does your approach vary depending on whether you are writing for Blue Rodeo or for a solo project?

My approach to songwriting is always borne of isolation.  I sit with a guitar and start playing and things just start to flow.  Then I start to shape them.  I can’t create something from nothing, I can just shape what comes.   The difference between Blue Rodeo and my own songs is not at the inception but in the execution, and that’s when they become a little more personal.  It happens when they’re finished and have been played by different people.   People that play songs have a great deal of influence of how a song is finished.  You hear an instrument that plays something and it turns you towards the sadness, or you play an instrument and it turns you towards the sunshine of a song.

5. A lot of your songs have something to do with summertime, rain, etc. Are you more inspired to write more during a certain time of the year?

No.  I have been exposed as being overly concerned with rain and shadows in my songs.  It has nothing to do with outside conditions, it is borne of internal conditions.  I don’t even know what it’s doing outside when I’m writing.

6. Your songs always seem to tell a story. Are you influenced by any literary sources?

Probably the literary source that does both literature and songs would be Leonard Cohen and I certainly admire the precision of his lyrics but I like the clarity of songs that tell a story, or at least paint a very particular picture. Those like Kris Kristofferson or Steve Earle or Bob Dylan.  I love the marriage of the precise with the abstract. The precision of the setting or the narrative and the abstract of the psychological that is going on in the songs.

7. Who are you biggest musical influences?

The Beatles, Jackson Brown, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Jane Siberry.

8. When did you realize that music was something more than just a hobby, that you could actually make a career out of it?

It was 1990, I was still working, doing props for TV commercials, but our touring schedule demanded that I take time off my job.  After about six months I realized that I didn’t have to go back to my job right away.  It took me five years to decide not renew my union card.

9. If you weren't a musician, what would you be doing right now?

I’d probably be unhappy as a lawyer, or someone in business.

10. Tell us about life on the road. What's been your most exotic experience so far?

The most exotic experiences have always been going to reservations in the Northern regions of Canada. The landscape is hard to describe.  It’s so beautiful and it’s so barren, and something always happens to us that we didn’t expect.  We meet somebody that’s very moving, we’re treated in a way that’s very moving, or we witness something in someone’s culture that changes us.

11. How do you stay sane when touring day after day?

I’m used to it now.  I see friends and run, or just walk around the town if I haven’t been to it before, it’s all pretty pleasant.

12. What is the history on your guitar with the red rose?

Unfortunately the guitar was painted when I got it, so I don’t know the history of the red rose.  I like it, but I don’t know the history.

13. Another guitar question: Where did you get your Cherry Red ES335?  What year was it made?

It’s a 1967 ES335. It was purchased on 49 Street in New York City.  It was the first vintage guitar that I ever owned, and I was in love with it for about 10 years.  I bought it in 1982, and I had it till about ’92, and I was tired of it and put it up for sale. Thankfully no one bought it after six months.  I can’t believe I ever put it up for sale.  I love it.  We had a six month trial separation and now we’re married again.

14. Would you ever consider doing a CD of all covers?

It’s never occurred to me.

15. What about an unplugged album or a concert one?

Well, we’ve done a live record, and unplugged I would love to do it. 

16. Or a live, all-request TV show?

Don’t have much use for those.

17. If you could perform alongside any artist or band, living or dead, who would you pick?

I think it’s already happened to me. I think performing with Kris Kristofferson was about as great as it could get.  That we played his songs, and that he sang along to ours, was really something.

18. What's in your CD player right now? Who do you enjoy listening to?

To tell you the truth the record I’ve listened the most to this summer is a recording of a concert at Carnegie Hall with John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.  They were actually just a portion of a larger concert that had all kinds of incredible artists like Billie Holiday and Count Basie.  I listened to that countless times. 

19. What about books, who are your favourite authors?

Well, currently I just finished Michael Winter, “The Big Why”, which I quite enjoyed.  My favourite book of all times is “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

20. Do you have any Blue Rodeo tracks that are favourites of yours? If so, what makes those songs so special?

Well, I like them all.  What I’m a bit obsessed with right now is “Draggin’ On,” which I’m trying to get my band to perform.  It wasn’t really performed by Blue Rodeo.

21. One last "favourite" question: which charities do you like to support?

We support locally the women’s shelters, and the food bank.  I have been working with MusicCan, which is a charity which provides instruments for musical programs for public schools.

22. Any ideas on how to encourage the growth of music programs within schools and communities?

I think MusicCan does a good job, because kids need music and the financial support is there.  Beyond that, it is getting as many musicians possible to profile how important music has been to their lives, and to keep raising it as an issue.

23. And finally, what is the one question that you'd love to have asked, but never have been, so far in your career?

There is not a single question I can think of that I have not been asked.  My favourite question is, shall we get a drink?