kind of like woody guthrie style life. >> trevor: because in south africa, train hopping, people standrain and they hop around and sometimes they die. >> that's mostly in movies here. >> trevor: you weren't doing that? >> no. >> trevor: okay. >> i'm a scaredy cat, so i don't know how i did that at that age. i think it's only something i could do when i was 17, honestly. >> trevor: that is an intense story, you know, when you think about it. 17 years old, you leave the house and you go, i'm going into america. you're traveling out there. were there moments when you were terrified for your life? >> there were definitely moments where i felt like i really had to rely on my intuition. it ties into this idea of "the navigator" because i look back on that part of my life and i'm, like, how did i make it out okay? i had a really intense desire to be free and doing what i wanted to do and, you know, seeing the country, and i felt like i didn't want anyone to stop me. i was really stubborn. >> trevor: that's one way to be stubborn. i would play music loudly in my room. ( laughter ) you ended up

kind of like woody guthrie style life. >> trevor: because in south africa, train hopping, people standtrain and they hop around and sometimes they die. >> that's mostly in movies here. >> trevor: you weren't doing that? >> no. >> trevor: okay. >> i'm a scaredy cat, so i don't know how i did that at that age. i think it's only something i could do when i was 17, honestly. >> trevor: that is an intense story, you know, when you think about it. 17 years old, you leave the house and you go, i'm going into america. you're traveling out there. were there moments when you were terrified for your life? >> there were definitely moments where i felt like i really had to rely on my intuition. it ties into this idea of "the navigator" because i look back on that part of my life and i'm, like, how did i make it out okay? i had a really intense desire to be free and doing what i wanted to do and, you know, seeing the country, and i felt like i didn't want anyone to stop me. i was really stubborn. >> trevor: that's one way to be stubborn. i would play music loudly in my room. ( laughter ) you ended u

i was listening to some woody guthrie. i think he definitely influenced me.ool.ing bad in i just decided to risk it and to go out on the road. amy: were you already play music? >> no, not really. i was writing poetry. i was writing a lot of poetry, going to see a lot of music. i was involved in the lower east side punk scene and i was a young feminist. i got to newn orleans when i started playing music because i started playing music on the street there. just trying to make some money. amy: how did you pick up the banjo? the washboard.ed the group i met there was a lot of other young seet kidsds. somebody gifted me a banjo. i learned in a very communal atmosphere, like laying around the campfire and learning a lot of american folk songs, a lot of appalachian n and blues songs. i learned in thahat way. amy: did you really hopped trains? >> i did, yeah. a lot of hitchhiking and train riding to get around. i was always with a group of kids. we were really just wanting to live on the outskirts of society, basically. we wanted to get in touch with an america we fe