Keep your family and old friends around you. That's what I had done and that's what saved my life when it came to being famous.

My hair was slicked down with a part. But that was before I discovered the blow-dryer. Now I'm fabulous.

Whenever there was a choice between music and anything else, music won hands down every time.

The melody seems to have gone to the country. The country music seems to still have melody and interesting lyrics. But pop music, you've got to really listen hard to somebody who's doing a good melody and a good lyric.

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 couldn't bear the road anymore. I'm sure that a lot of people who have been on the road a long time will say the same thing. After a while, waiting for bedroom service and planes - I wanted to go home.

I come from nowhere Brooklyn, New York. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These days Williamsburg is kind of a hip area, but when I grew up there, the taxi drivers wouldn't even go over the bridge, it was so dangerous.