I really just followed my musical instincts every step of my life.

My songwriting and my style became more complex as I listened, learned, borrowed and stole and put my music together.

I'm still trying to re-create a Ray Charles concert that I heard when I was fifteen years old, and all my nerve endings were fried and transformed, and electricity shot through me.

My earliest influences were things I heard in my household.

Quite frankly, I've always listened to the black side of the radio dial. Where I grew up, there was a lot of it and there was a lot of live music around.

I listened to classical guitar and Spanish guitar, as well as jazz guitar players, rock and roll and blues. All of it. I did the same thing with my voice.

My first love was the sound of guitar.