Interview: Albert Hammond Jr. talks addiction, the state of The Strokes with Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone spoke with Albert recently in an about his addiction, the current state of The Strokes and his new record. It hit the web today.

The talk about the seriousness of the Albert’s drug abuse is once again prominently featured — it’s as scary as ever — but he also talked about The Strokes more than he has in other Q&As he’s done. Here is the last part of the Q&A.

The Strokes really means something to people. But it’s surprising you haven’t done a real U.S. tour in years. Why?
Just to lay low. [Laughs.] Um, it’s not against the fans. It’s not against them. I mean, we feel that way about each other and the songs, so it’s amazing to hear that fans feel the same way. I don’t think that’ll go away. I think it will only make it better when everything starts, you know?

Angles was the last record for RCA, so now you can do whatever you want.
Yeah, I mean, I guess so. In so many ways, yeah. I think we’re still playing with that idea.

What do you think the future of the Strokes is?
You’re asking the wrong guy, man. [Laughs.]

But you’re in the band!
I’d ask the captain of the ship.

But you guys are still an active band, right?
Yeah. I mean I wouldn’t be sitting here in an office filled with Strokes stuff if we weren’t an active band [Laughs]. Who do you think pays for this? We’ve passed the point of like anger or breakups. We know fans love us and we love them and we are gonna be there with interesting and cool music. I can’t imagine how much time that takes, I’m not even suggesting that it’s gonna take long or it’s not. I think in the long run that might even be a big attraction for people who like us. I feel like, enjoy it, cause at some point it won’t exist anymore.

I think the ultimate thing would be is if I could open up for the band. That would be really cool. I think people would enjoy that. I haven’t even brought that up to the guys. I mean there is no, there’s no dates. I’m just booking this American thing. I can’t think further and I don’t want to like give any weird positive or negative feed on it, besides the obvious positive that we haven’t gone anywhere.

So the Strokes might tour again?

Yeah, yeah. People like watching us live. I just think when that machine starts up, it’s a Titanic you know, so it moves slowly so you just, you want to be pointing in the right direction, and when you’ve done something for 12 years in a certain way, you need to reprogram everything. And that takes time to eventually get around and figure out, and since we realized that we actually have a little bit of time and a little bit of wiggle room. Julian can foresee his stuff with Cult [Records], which makes him creatively very happy, which means he’s going to write cool songs. But other people spend time with their kids and do music and Fab is doing some amazing artwork. And I get to do this and it’s just wonderful. You get a little bit of everything. Talking about it, I feel like such a lucky asshole.