I'm not saying that people have to listen to rock music. It's a great, cool thing and it can really be liberating for a lot of people but, hey, so can Charles Dickens so I'm not going to judge.

But the truth is that critics are by definition critical. That's their job.

As soon as I got into music, I tried to be a working, real artist who gets paid for what he does, who doesn't have a day job.

The first thing that inspires any song is a chord progression. When I have one I really like, I get into the lyrics even more.

You think you've made something really great, but there's a reason why it's not resonating the way some previous work did. But it's not that easy to just replicate. Some people think, "Oh, just go do that thing you used to do before." But it just doesn't work like that. It's a lot more mysterious or slippery.

I've got a small, loyal audience, which is great. And I appreciate that. They're there for me every time.

I don't like to have everything all worked out in my head because there's always a chance of it coming out different than you think it should anyway.