Don Henley wrote a substantial portion of his new Cass County album while driving the 154-mile distance between Dallas and Linden, Texas, and the experience left him feeling fairly grim about the state of American society.

Saying he was cut off by other drivers on a regular basis, Henley told Paste, "That encapsulates the whole fabric of our society now. Common courtesy is gone."

The next logical step, continued Henley, is to remove turn signals from cars in order to really reflect how modern driving is a "bloodsport." "If you want to change lanes or get off the freeway, you’d better start doing it a mile or two in advance, because nobody gives a s--- what you want to do," he warned. "That’s what happens when there’s too many f---ing people, like the psychologist who did the simple experiment of putting rats in a cage — the more you put in, the more aggressive their behavior becomes. It’s just a simple equation, but I don’t know what the answer is."

He may not know what the answer is, but Henley — who's devoted much of his time, money and energy to environmental causes over the last several decades — sees an inevitable endpoint looming, regardless of whether we treat other drivers fairly. "Nature’s going to take care of it," he shrugged. "We’re going to run out of f---ing water, and that’s going to be it. That said? Life is still pretty good. And it’s better than the alternative, I guess."

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