I've had an experience through music that has touched almost every part of me. It educated me in ways that I didn't get educated in school. So we try to lay on a bit of that, through being funny, being serious, playing hard.

And whether you're drawn to gospel music or church music or honky-tonk music, it informs your character and it informs your talent.

The songs themselves do broaden out as time passes and take on subtly different meanings, take on more meaning, I find.

Plus, you know, when I was young, there was a lot of respect for clowning in rock music - look at Little Richard. It was a part of the whole thing, and I always also believed that it released the audience.

Certainly tolerance and acceptance were at the forefront of my music.

The press has let the country down. It's taken a very amoral stand, in that essential issues are often portrayed as simply one side says this and the other side says that. I think that Fox News and the Republican right have intimidated the press into an incredible self-consciousness about appearing objective and backed them into a corner of sorts where they have ceded some of their responsibility and righteous power.

Show a little faith, there's magic in the night.