I read somewhere once that when Don Schlitz lost his father, he had writer's block for several months and was at risk of losing his writing position and everything... and then the first song he wrote after that hiatus was "The Gambler." I, on the other hand, have been writing like crazy since my dad died. I don't know what it means, but I suspect there won't be any classic hit songs coming out of my grief -- it's too productive for that. At least by Schlitz standards. Maybe all this writing will help me stay out of therapy, though, so instead of earning royalties, I'll be saving money on shrinks. Of course, it's not very rock 'n' roll of me to want to avoid being crazy, or even to avoid being in therapy. I also read somewhere once that Tom Petty (or was it Elvis Costello? or maybe both?) has been known to mess up relationships he was in just so he'd have new material to write about. That dude needs therapy. But he sure writes great songs.