Humanitarian issues always inspire me to write - human rights - but then again, environmental stuff can get so entwined with environmental racism and global warming, human issues. But I also think you're turned on by some things and not tuned on by other things. I've asked myself that, too.

SFBG: Can music be green?

BD: I don't know, music alone? Music has a potential to be real political and be very revolutionary because it reaches people and communciates with people in ways that other forms of communication and art can't. I think tours can be green, and they can never be green enough.

You never know what green music is. Willie nelson has been using biodiesel for years - long before Jack Johnson or Dave Matthews... I love the term green because it represents so much about environmentalism and nature. But with everything there's a connotation - there's a connotation of hippies or environmentalist music, and there are plenty of artists who may not be environmentalist who are using biofuels, because they're the smart thing to use and it benefits everybody. I see the trend moving that way, too. I see more and more people doing it. It'll become more mainstream, like organic food. It used to be the thing you could only get in a few places, and now more restaurants and major supermarkets have it - people are changing the way you look at organic. That’s what I hope. I hope we don’t need a category for green, it'll be like, duh, of course, I'm going to use sustainable fuels and do things electronically and not print things on paper.

SFBG: How have things been going for you?

BD: It's been great – this week I was on the Jay Leno show, and I had a song on American Idol, which was wild.

SFBG: You weren't on the show?

BD: It would have been so scary - the floor they stand on is like a giant mirror. It's like they're in a giant spaceship or something. No, it was this episode, "American Idol Gives Back," Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana, arguably the biggest star in the world, and her father go back to to their hometown in Mississippi and they were looking at poverty there. They used my song for their little excursion. That’s a whole demographic of people that I don’t know I'd be able to reach. That was really cool.

SFBG: What have you been up to creatively?

BD: I've been writing a bunch of songs, gearing up to record another record. One of the songs is called "San Francisco," and I've never played it live in public – I might debut it in Golden Gate Park.

I've always wanted to write about San Francisco because it was my favorite city in the world and definitely in the country - my second favorite city in the country is Tucson, Arizona. San Francisco is just such as great, romantic city and so beautiful - I always wanted to write something about it, so I disguised it sort of as a love song. It has to do with saying goodbye to your lover or partner and telling them you're going to move to SF – it's pretty fictional because that’s the last thing I'd tell my girlfriend. But the song goes on to talk about experiences in SF and different neighborhoods.

I've lived in the Bay Area a bunch: I grew up close to the Bay Area and went to college in Santa Cruz. I feel like I have a good idea of the vibe. I've never been more inspired to be a good person anywhere else. Now I live in Santa Monica - it’s the quiet beach town and it's OK. It's kind of like you took San Mateo and gave it a tan – and threw in some celebrities.

GREEN APPLE FESTIVAL
With Mickey Hart's Mass Drums, Yonder Mountain String Band, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, and Brett Dennen
Sun/20, noon, free
Speedway Meadow
West side of 19th Avenue, Golden Gate Park, SF