Playboy.com: You've been on the road constantly since Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll was released in 2004. Why tour as a solo artist now?

Mike Ness: I was supposed to be taking a break for physical, mental and spiritual necessity. It's funny, because every interview I've done in the last year, journalists would ask me about [a solo tour]. I would go, "I would like to go do that, but we've just been so busy with Social D." I just felt it was the perfect opportunity to get out and let people know that it was still in my mind.

Playboy.com: Just how troubled were you as a kid?

Ness: The way I look at it, there's always someone worse off. It certainly wasn't the worst of situations, but it was rough. My parents were alcoholics. As I understand it, they drank until I was five, and then they got sobered up and it was an unhappy marriage. My father was not a very patient man with a temper. They divorced when I was about 12 and it was very painful. My mom had custody of us and she started drinking and we all had to go to a foster house for a little while. And then my father took custody and he had a new girlfriend and she was a psycho. I left when I was 15 and it was probably the best thing.

Playboy.com: Where did you go?

Ness: I basically had to go live with friends and family. I had no money. I ended up in this home with a family of six who had money. It was out of control -- the kids basically ran the household. The parents were in the middle of a divorce, but they were kind enough to take me in. I lived with them for a couple of years.

Playboy.com: Did you drop out of high school when you moved out?

Ness: No, I managed to stick around until my senior year. I finally dropped out 'cause school was in the way of my nightlife. I had a band to start. Looking back, I don't have a lot of regrets in my life, but that's one of them. Sometimes I just feel so stupid. You know, my kids are in school and they're learning about history and I never learned it. I'm like, "What period is this?" They're like, "Dad, the Greek/Roman period."

Playboy.com: There's a story about your early days that has almost become a rock urban legend -- that you went into a rage with a knife and almost sliced your index finger off. What happened?

Ness: Yeah, I thought I was Sid Vicious. [Laughs] Looking back, it was a cry for help, like these kids today they call "cutters." I guess I was that. I was slashing my arms and face and chest. I would cut myself and go to school the next day. All of a sudden the jocks who were picking on me stopped. They said, "This kid's fuckin' crazy, stay away from him." [Laughs] But what really happened that one time, I was stabbing the wall for some reason with a really long steak knife and my hand slipped and it almost cut my left index finger off. I had to go to emergency 'cause it wouldn't stop bleeding. They did reconstructive surgery over night and in the morning took me to the psychiatric ward. I was 18, and that was the first time that I felt that my future could be in someone else's hands -- the judicial system or the psychiatric system. It felt serious and I didn't want to spend my life in either.

Playboy.com: How long were you in the psych ward?

Ness: Almost three days. They put you in for a 72-hour evaluation. My mom got me out of that, and I don't know how, because a lady at the place told me, "You need to be here; I think that you pose a serious risk to yourself and others."

Playboy.com: How much did drugs and alcohol play into all this?

Ness: Heavily. I was a full-blown alcoholic by the time I was 17, getting in fights all the time. It was like I had held it all in until I was 17. I was going from a boy to a man, I guess. I was roaming the streets as a punk rocker and society's reaction was very volatile. But I couldn't be passive any more.

Playboy.com: How many times were you arrested?

Ness: I was lucky. I was in Orange County Jail a lot, but I didn't get any long terms. I was in the San Diego County felony tank for a week because I assaulted a bouncer. I almost went to prison, but I didn't do jail well. I didn't enjoy it like some of the other guys did. [Laughs] When I talk about it on stage, I say, "I had things to do and people to see. I didn't have time to be doing time." Being a convict was not something that I wanted to pursue. When I introduce the song "Prison Bound," I often say that a judge one day had a little faith in me and thought I'd do better up on stage with a guitar in my hands than in the yard walking around with my chest up.