"To me, it's sort of about the lingering aspect of [9/11] that is used to kind of create support for things that haven't been very good for our country or the citizens of our country. I've felt like, with the Bush administration, whenever they're in crisis, they'll suddenly pull out a terror alert - a code orange scenario, which I run into constantly, because I'm in airports so often. They don't ever have to say why, just that it's a matter of national security. And with the conservative right, part of the platform right now in the election is 'Be afraid of terror, be afraid of terrorists. Look at 9/11 - we need an administration and a president who knows how to go out, kick ass, take names and keep us safe.' That's what got us into Iraq in the first place. [That tactic] certainly helped, and I think [9/11 was] a key factor in Bush winning a second term. To me, the song is about how awful 9/11 was, but stresses that we've got to let go of that to move on peacefully."

"I sat down at the piano in my home studio and started putting some chords with the phrase 'hole in the world,'" he said. "Months went by, but I didn't show it to anybody. Then, other things started happening that gave additional meanings to 'Hole in the World,' particularly after the [Iraqi] war started. The fighting was supposedly over in May, and yet one or two or three of our boys were - and still are - getting killed every day, which means somebody's daddy is not coming home. So that's another 'hole' -- a huge hole in somebody's life - a child, a wife, a mother, a father, a brother, a sister."

Don Henley