
A maverick, unpredictable loose canon, Paul Westerberg is one of the most lauded songwriters of his generation. With his band The Replacements, his genius for writing rowdy yet often melancholic tunes was matched only by the band's reputation for booze-soaked performances, where the 'Mats – as their fans called them – would stumble drunk through shows, occasionally abandoning the stage completely. In 2004, as he prepared to release his sixth solo album, Folker, he sat down with Classic Rock for an interview.