Name : David Eugene Edwards
Band : 16 Horsepower
Age : 30
Marital status : married, two children (Asher and Elijah)
City of domicile : Denver

WATT: Do you know that the horseshoe around your neck is hanging the wrong way round? This way all good luck pours out.
David Eugene Edwards (DEE): "That is pure superstition. It is just a neck-chain a friend gave me. I just happen to love horses. I've grown up with them. To me a horse is a symbol of labour."

WATT: So not superstitious, but religious. You have said that it is God's will that you make music. It can't possibly have been his intention to make you make music that is so sad?
DEE: "I find my songs quite cheerful. Many perhaps sound somewhat depressing, but in each chorus I also bring to light something positive. Actually they are like life itself. I see it as a flashlight I turn on in the dark. Do you know what I don't understand? When somebody writes a book in which atrocious murders take place, nobody says anything then. If I happen to write a sombre song then everybody immediately has something to say about that."

WATT: Are you well-read in the Scriptures?
DEE: "Yes, the Bible is the most beautiful thing on earth. It doesn't matter how many times you have read it, every time it tells you something new. Often around me I hear people say: 'How can the Bible be authentic? It has been translated so many times, there are so many different versions.' But God is God and He would never allow someone to alter His words. We need the Bible and He knows that. And I believe it. Word for word."

WATT: Hasn't it become a rather odd and outdated instruction manual? Men are not allowed to cut their sideburns, tattoos are wrong and the punishment for homosexuality is the death penalty.
DEE: "God's current presence is quite different compared to the days of the Old Testament. That is because of the coming of Jesus. But there are certain laws, that's a fact. If I jump off a bridge, I will fall down. It could be my wish to fly but I will really end up in the water. That is a law of nature. There are millions of other laws like that. Morally and spiritually too. These laws are here to make people's lives better. God too has His laws. If someone commits a sin He will punish that person. For his own good."

WATT: What's the deal with pre-marital sex?
DEE: "It's a sin, and therefore there's a penalty. What that penalty is..."

WATT: What is the reason that God has so many wars to answer for?
DEE: "He doesn't have to answer for them. Everybody is always talking about God and evil, but nobody is talking about the devil. If you believe in the Bible, then you believe in Satan. Satan is stronger and more sly than we think."

WATT: Is the devil more powerful than God?
DEE: "Of course not. God created him. Just like he created us: with a free will. And Satan has decided to be selfish. To choose himself before God."

WATT: Why then does God look on passively?
DEE: "For a great many reasons, I think. We cannot comprehend that. If He has created the entire universe, then who are we to guess what He's thinking. You don't know why certain things happen, but that is where faith pops its head in. You shouldn't forget that Satan too has his own place here on earth. All the temptations he serves up 24 hours per day are intended to make you suffer."

WATT: What are life's temptations?
DEE: "Egoism. That is the only one. It is pertinent to everything. First thinking about yourself before you think of someone else. If you love somebody, then you efface yourself to help the other. If we would all do that then everybody would be taken care for. That is the way God works. If you are willing to give up everything then He will grant you everything your hart desires."

WATT: Is there a sin you pray for again and again?
DEE: "Yes, egoism."

WATT: And this time not so general please.
DEE: "Okay, I smoke. And my wife opposes that. She thinks it is egoistic and she's right. I think I can succeed in stopping. But on the other hand I suppose that everyone has something that never goes away. Nobody's perfect. Some things you need to get to where you have to go. Perhaps you need to be in a car-crash and become disabled to know who God is. Who knows, perhaps I get lung cancer... Hopefully God does that with the right intention. That doesn't imply that I therefore don't try to give up smoking anymore. I don't think: Oh, God'll fix it. God is not a knucklehead. That is not how He is."

WATT: So you aren't perfect, but is perfection your goal?
DEE: "No, I want to be like Jesus. But that is impossible. Jesus namely is perfect. I don't think it is possible to be perfect on this earth. Not in this body anyway. A human being can only be perfect when he has been freed from his body."

WATT: Can you react to the following three fragments of lyrics in which God plays a part?

"Tell me you're crazy, maybe then I'll understand" [Tori Amos - God]

DEE: "She's confused. She doesn't understand that God let's certain things happen. Sometimes it looks so wacko that He must be raving mad. He could stop it like that, but he doesn't. He cannot obtrude himself, that's the way it is. People have a will of their own. That is why the world is such a mess."

"What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?" [Joan Osborne - One Of Us]

DEE: "I rather like Joan Osborne. She's got the right notion. I suppose she wants to say: God is just like us. And that he is among us. You will chiefly find him in suffering. In happiness too, but especially near the poor and the sick. Why? Because God is needed there. If you're not sick, you don't go to the doctor. If you want to see a swell God, you should walk along with Mother Theresa for a day."

"Whether it's God or the bomb, it's all the same. It's only fear under another name" [Max Q - (hobby band of the late Michael Hutchence) - Way Of The World]