Bathrooms, those become really important on the road. The thing about the tours we're doing is, so much of it is exactly the same as it ever was for the past 20 years. It's exactly the same venues. [Laughs.] Which is wonderful. It's really comforting to go back to those same places when so much else about the music industry has completely changed—that the same venues are still interested in the same music. It's a neat thing that to be able to hope that that's still there. So it's kinda a walk down memory lane, and I know exactly what the bathrooms are like. I know where the bathrooms are to avoid.

What are some of the bathrooms you're hoping to avoid?

Well, in San Francisco you really have to have your bathroom mapped out. It can be a really dirty city. It can be really harsh. [Laughs.] You don't want to have to use the—I don't know, they have these things where you go in and pay money. It's horrific. I would never take my child in there.

Wasn't that originally a European luxury, being able to pay to use the bathroom out on the streets? Whereas here we've taken it and it's something pretty disgusting. But at the same time even if you're grossed out, you think, "Well, I paid my money... Might as well get my money's worth"

[Laughs.] Also the idea for having to pay to use the bathroom is really strange to Americans at first. Once you realize that the ones you pay for, the nice ones, not the ones in San Francisco, the clean ones, you can see the value in it. You want it to actually be usable.

There's a really interesting [bathroom] off I-5. There's this bathroom in, an Exxon gas station. I remember you go upstairs and there is a crazy female mannequin in the bathtub. [Laughs.] You'd never know it until you've gone to it, you're so surprised. It's like a rush of adrenaline, because you think there's someone in there. [Laughs.] It's just kind of a funny American sense of humor thing, where you just encounter something unexpected.

I don't use the men's room, so I don't know if there's something like that in there. I guess it's sort a punk-rock thing to do if there's a really long line for the women's. But in general it's like, [Scoffs.] "It's disgusting in there." I think men, you just piss all over. I have a husband, I have a son, and I understand your aim is a little off in the morning.

But in Washington state, the bathrooms are just always cleaner. Something about Washington, it's just a clean and wonderful state. Use the rest areas there. I think it's a component, in my mind, of what goes on [in the state.] There are venues like the El Rey, and I remember the beautiful dressing rooms there. The lighted mirror, and the really fancy history—oh, you're a star.

You're skipping a lot of the flyover states on this tour, but do you have any insight into the rest areas there? All those 40-some states?

Well, I've done it so many times. And I actually enjoyed being in a van and driving across the country. It can be really fun. I remember driving with Sleater-Kinney through a full-on snowstorm, in like, April. I think it was at a certain point, on the Dig Me Out tour, that the Waffle House was banned because of a... certain experience. It was really gross. I think we were starving and we needed food. There was an awful bathroom experience that was like, "Okay. We're never eating here again." I think there was a giant poop mess. Just, no. Cross that one off the list.

Any others you've banned throughout the years?

I'm trying to think. I don't think we've ever eaten at McDonald's, although I think we would pee at McDonald's in a pinch. Peeing and eating, they're tied. But I think Washington, California, and Oregon all have reasonably clean bathrooms. Even in the gas stations. I think the East Coast, it's set up different, because they have those service stations where everything's there. So usually with those things you get everything done at once, and it's okay.

In terms of regional junk food, is there something you're making sure to seek out this time out?

Well, yeah. [Laughs.] Okay, so in Seattle, at the Showbox, they usually have a really good hot dog cart. I don't eat much before we play, before I have to sing, but I like to eat something afterwards. That's one of my guilty pleasures, and I think they put cream cheese on it. It's good. They'll put weird junk on it and deliciousness like that. They have Comeback Sauce, this really weird sauce.

How do you feel about diners with cutesy names for their entrees, like Denny's with Moons Over My Hammy? Do you just point at them on the menu, or do you dare speak those embarrassing words out loud?

God, I think Heavens To Betsy toured with us and they'd order it. I really enjoy saying the names of the menu items, even if it's in a different language. To me, being in a restaurant is like, "Woohoo!" Because I have to cook for my family most of the time. Even a Denny's is like a vacation.

Speaking of IHOP, we haven't even gotten into international bathrooms. You're going to Japan on this tour.

Well, we found out that we get to go to Japan at the beginning of December. I'm so excited because it's one of my favorite countries that we've visited. And it's just so different and the customs are so interesting. Talk about interesting bathrooms and food. Some of the bathrooms that are set up there are like the squatting bathrooms, where you just go in and it's in the floor.

And some things we do that they do, like, you're not supposed to eat while walking on the streets I guess? You're not supposed to pour your own tea. And yeah, there's so many things that are different there.

Yeah, they have like 14 kinds of Kit-Kats over there, soy-sauce Kit Kats.

Yes! I don't even know that I got to the junk food so much there because the food is so amazing and so different. Just, every meal was a complete sensory overlap. I think the first night Sleater-Kinney went there, they took us to dinner and said, "Are you a vegetarian?" And we said, "No." The first thing we ate was raw ostrich with special sauce on it. It was really good, and we of course wanted to be polite to our hosts, so we ate everything. [Laughs.] I don't even know if we had room for weird junk food.

And the bathrooms there? Amazing. The Japanese-toilet thing, like, there's 8 different buttons for different things you can do to yourself. The blow-drier, you can take a little bath, there's a heated seat. You can spend an hour in there on the toilet. It's so much fun. I love it.

Why are we lagging so far behind in America when it comes to toilet technology?

That's a good question. We are behind. Ba-da-bump! [Laughs.] I think Americans are a little bit, I don't know? Cheapskates? We don't really spend the money on a $3,000 toilet. If I ever get rich I'm going to buy one of those.