I hope that somewhere in Small Town, U.S.A., a 15-year-old kid looks to me as a role model the way I looked at the Indigo Girls and Elton John as role models.

I tend to feel really protective of songs, and if they aren't sitting well in a record, I'll pull them tight to my chest until I feel it's a better time.

I'm not so arrogant to consider mine the only legitimate art form. I can't in one breath make a fuss about someone compartmentalizing music into genre and then in the next accuse advertising and short film of not being art.

I'd love to claim the title of 'songwriter' or 'intellectual,' but the truth is that anything that I ever learned how to do in conjunction with music was purely so that I would have a platform to sing from.

My advice to new artists is to embrace a broader concept of timelessness than vintage or retro.

All of these lines across my face, tell you the story of who I am. So many stories of where I've been and how I got to where I am.

Every city has a town outside with a lake. I pull out my fishing pole and fish. I've been doing that for a long time.