How did the Moody and Johnson thing happen at the very beginning of Inhabiting the Ball?
JR: I was just reading both of them a lot, particularly Denis Johnson at the time, and the books were really resonating with me. He would reference a lot of music in the book that was exactly stuff I loved. And between the fact that his writing completely floored me — every word of it — and I just had a feeling that he loved music, with him it was just kind of a shot out of the blue. I knew Chuck Prophet had told me that they had been in contact once about maybe Chuck wanted to pitch a song for the Jesus’ Son soundtrack? I don’t know what. But he kind of told me that he was a cool guy. So, I just wrote him a very sincere letter, first and foremost and sincerely, just saying that I loved his writing and I was stunned, and secondly to say, “hey, I’m doing this record. Here’s my first two records,” which I’d enclosed. And I said, “I know you love music, so if you have any songs or if you want to participate in any way, I’d love it.” And he actually responded. So, I got an email a month
