How involved has the band been with the stage setup and lighting?
We’re probably more hands-on than anyone you can imagine. We actually built the stage ourselves too. We have to facilitate those ideas and it has to come from us. There’s an overall theme that gets started and then we have a guy that worked with us when we were on tour with Weezer, Ethan, and he’s come back to work with us again. The gig he just got done with was U2’s Stadium Tour. He’s coming with us to slum it. He likes the creative process no matter how matter big or small it may be and since we all work well together, we all have these creative and interesting visions, he still finds it worthwhile to come hang out with us. Who approached artist Drew Struzan to paint the cover of I-Empire? These ideas always come from Tom [DeLonge, guitarist/singer]. I just would never think of it. I would think how cool it would be but . . . We were looking through a Star Wars book and he thought, wouldn’t that be cool? Who thinks they’ll just call Drew up and ask him to draw? And Drew calls back!
