By Michael Levine> University of Maryland/Photos Alissa Mahler> University of Maryland

On April 15 I didn't do my taxes, instead, I hung out with Plain White T's guitarist Dave Tirio. Even though their hit song "Hey There Delilah" was a global sensation, and their recent hit “1,2,3,4,” is climbing the charts, Dave says he still doesn't feel like a “rockstar”; he's just happy to play music every night.  Honestly, when it comes down to it, Dave’s just an awesome dude from Chicago who hit big.

Q.      Did you go to college?
A.      Yes. University of Illinois, [Urbana–Champaign].

Q.      What did you study?
A.      Art history, drawing, design; I was focusing on graphic design.  But I dropped out during spring break of my freshman year.

Q.      No way, why?
A.      I was burnt out from taking so many art classes in high school, and I thought that if I stayed [in college], I’d just end up with piece of paper that says I’m an artist. The band also started taking off when I started college, [so] I was coming home most weekends to play shows.  I did anything I could to avoid work; I wanted to do the band thing.

Q.      How did your parents take it once you dropped out?
A.      They were so upset.  It was one-and-a-half years of horror in my house.  They said I wasted their money.  The band was about $50,000 in debt to our parents before we got signed to a major label,  [and we didn’t pay] them back [until] well into our 20’s.  In high school I had gotten all A’s and B’s, so my parents thought, “He’ll set the bar [for the rest of the family]” because I was really the first kid in my family to go to college. Everyone was looking up to me.

Q.      Do you have any siblings?
A.      My brother.  It’s funny, he’s now finishing up [college] and owes me money. But it’s cool because I know what it’s like to be where he is; I’m happy to be able to help him.

Q.      What’s it like playing college shows?
A.      It’s always kinda crazy going back cause I get that sense of how hard it is to get a degree. Before the days when we had a tour bus, we would find places to crash and had great times with complete strangers. I remember we’d go out to the college bars and party with people from the shows, and sometimes even get free drinks.

Q.      Do you think you’d get the rockstar treatment if you went back to U of I?
A.      It’s funny.  If I were back at school no one would know who the hell I was.

Q.      You were there for only one semester, but what was college like when you were there?
A.      I had a couple of good times at U of I. I really let loose. I drank and smoked pot for the first time. In high school, I respected what my parents said, and I didn’t do those things then.

Q.      Any good stories?
A.      My RA was learning how to play guitar. I taught [him] how to play old Bowie and Beatles tunes. We got really close. I remember this one night when I got super, super drunk cause I was pissed about something that happened with a girl. [While drunk] I went to his room and wrote an entire paper — and got a B on it! My RA was awesome. How many RAs invite you to their wedding, you know?

Q.     Dalilah…
A.      Oh man, I don’t get how even big media outlets that have all kinds of access to answers still ask if she’s real. We took the chick to the Grammy’s for God’s sake. She was in f-cking People Magazine.

Q.     What was it like having an interview with How’s Your News?
A.      Like a bucket of ice water in the face. It was really in-your-face. It was totally cool and completely a shock: like going 0-200 miles per hour in 1 second.

Q.     If you could play any instrument in any 3 bands of all time, which bands would it be?
A.      (1) The Beatles. They had the most rabid fan-base of all time. I’d play guitar. (2) Pavement. They’re probably the coolest band ever. There was this dude in the band, Bob Nastanovich who played a cowbell, or just screamed. That’d be my role. (3) The Ramones. I’d want to know how insane their inner-band politics were. You know, they’d travel in a van and scream at each other! And of course, they were so influential.

Q.     Do you see the Plain White T’s as becoming an influential band?
A.      I don’t know. We’re not reinventing the wheel.

Q.     What’s it like waking up famous everyday?
A.      You can’t even understand it, really. We’re just not totally aware of it, I think. We never really had a That Thing You Do moment, except for when we heard our song on some local station in Chicago when we were starting off.