much it's unbelievable, too. This is home. We've traveled everywhere and there's no place like home. This is it.

VIVA: I guess we should know your platform. You seem pretty pro-family values, having been married almost forty years...

Toody: Thirty-seven.

VIVA: What do you think about gay marriage?

Toody: I think that relationships are enough of a bitch; if you find your soul mate, that's great! It's such a small percentage of the population that ever do and it's something that everybody's looking for.

Fred: I have never been able to understand why, when people aren't hurting somebody else, they have to get fucked with. It's so hard for people to be happy, and I don't really give a fuck whether it's smoking or whatever. They say that second-hand smoke is killing people, but I doubt it. If people don't like it, don't go to bars! They should have bars that are smoker bars and bars that are non-smoking bars. If you're not into being gay, then don't be gay! If you are, fuck! Who cares?

Toody: It's like pick your poison! No matter how much Americans want to believe that they're not gonna die, we all are. So, just make the journey as enjoyable as possible and do what works for you! And what works for me isn't necessarily gonna work for you or Joe Blow down the block. As long as you don't force what works for you on me, I'm fine with it.

VIVA: What are your poisons?

Fred: We joke all the time about what gamblers we are, but we play penny Keno machines and we never get hurt by it. Sometimes we end up making a lot of money, but it all evens out.

Toody: Usually it's just entertainment and you lose your shorts... We're cheapskates!

VIVA: Good! That's how you keep rock'n'rolling and surviving.

Fred: We've never been into drugs. We drink. Sometimes when we come home from tour we drink too much but after we drink too much for two weeks we dry out. We go to Reno and when we're gambling we never drink. We have our coffee but we never have any booze, even though they bring it to us for free. That's our thing.

VIVA: Dead Moon's platform. Do you think voting is important and will you be voting in November?

Fred: Yeah! I think it's real important and I'm gonna be voting for George Bush and everyone thinks I'm crazy. I already know what to expect from him. I don't really feel like change is gonna make that much difference. At least we know where George Bush is at. I'd really hate to vote for somebody and have them come into office and then all of a sudden a whole lot of stuff really does change majorly. That to me is even more scary than knowing what to expect.

Toody: At this point for the last--oh, shit--fifteen, twenty years we've been really disgusted with what choice there is. I can completely understand why everyone's so apathetic. We're old enough to be cynical. At this point the President doesn't really run the country anyway. To me it's like a big corporation.

VIVA: It is a big corporation. I almost feel like the terrorists are the only revolutionaries really making a statement. How can you make your voice heard other than screaming onstage?

Toody: We grew up in the sixties when everybody was totally idealistic about everything, us included. This much time goes by and nothing--no matter what anybody sacrificed, did, whatever--has changed... You just make ripples and change a few people in your own little pond. That's more important to me.

VIVA: Admirable females in rock'n'roll are few and far between. When you were raising your kids, did you turn them on to any certain ladies?

Toody: I was always a big fan of Janis Joplin. Not her lifestyle, per se, but her singing just totally killed me, and I think she was an incredibly strong woman. I've been really blessed to have incredibly strong women in my life and in my family. Those were always a bigger influence, my mother especially. I tried to be that for my daughter Amanda. Kate Hepburn, too, was a big idol of mine when I was a kid. I really appreciate it when anyone younger than me gets that from me. It's like passing it on, and all of us need to do that.

VIVA: Do you ever go to strip bars in town?

Toody: Nah.

VIVA: Then you haven't had the pleasure of--well, Fred, you must have seen a stripper strip to your songs at some point.

Fred: Yeah. In Vegas. I was just out of high school. We got hired to play at the Colonial Inn, which at the time was right on the strip. I was nervous about playing anyway. I got onstage