This time around, grandson wasn’t pulling any punches. He’d always been a fearless artist, one unafraid to take aim at authority, fight the power and let his listeners know exactly how he felt.

But in recent times, the genre-mashing rock artist, who has long released soul-baring music, decided to reveal himself like never before. “My whole career and my whole relationship to songwriting has been driven by this real need to leave a mark and to feel understood,” says the Canadian-American artist born Jordan B enjamin. “And yet I felt that I had been doing myself and my fans, who have now been on this journey with me for half a decade now, a disservice. I felt like we didn’t even have an honest conversation the whole time. I didn’t feel like I was bringing all of me to the table.”