You know, when I did 'American Idol' the three times, I tried to tell these kids you have to tell the story of the lyric.

I believe in my writing.

You can't possibly prepare for what happens to you the day you hit No. 1 and people treat you differently.

I've been up, down, trying to get the feeling again. All around, trying to get the feeling again. The one that makes me shiver, made my knees start to quiver.

I am nervous that the craft of songwriting is taking a nose dive...And since I'm a songwriter and I connect with an interpretative, you know, interpretation of a song, I miss it. I just miss it.

I am a musician. My passion for music has obliterated everything in its path for my entire life. Whenever there was a choice between music and anything else, music won hands down every time. No one person or material thing could ever come close to the feeling I get when the music is right.

When it comes to me, I just write the most beautiful music I can, I do the best work I can, and then I hand it out there.