At some point, you protest too much they think you're guilty just because you're protesting.

Rock and Roll is still asking people like me to live up to the old guard's concept of what success is but it doesn't mean anything.

I don't have a problem with 'Idol' or 'X Factor,' I have a problem with when those things are not given the proper contextual hue.

I think I kind of approached music with this sort of, like, weird thing where I kinda set myself up where I could kinda be myself but not really. I kinda had a backdoor out. So if you criticized me, I kinda had my defenses working. And the problem is that some people seize on that as inauthenticity, which is understandable. So that's painful because it's not that you're being inauthentic...there's a difference between being a poseur and being someone who's so emotionally challenged they're kind of just doing their best to show you what they've got.

I'm by nature kind of a glum person, but I'm not a sad pathetic

Well, I'm known as a guitar-rock guy, you know? You're not supposed to play with synthesizers. This is not in the rulebook.

If you don't have some sort of belief system by which to center your life, it's hard sometimes to understand why you would put up with your family.