Songs used to be short, then they became longer, and now theyre getting shorter. But otherwise, music is about a beat and a message. If the beat gets to the audience, and the message touches them, youve got a hit.

I like the storytelling and reading the letters, the long-distance dedications.

Despite all the technical improvements, it still boils down to a man or a woman and a microphone, playing music, sharing stories, talking about issues -- communicating with an audience.

Anytime in radio that you can reach somebody on an emotional level, you're really connecting.

My first commercial was for Miller High Life beer.

Some of the things that I do, I think are very important and much more important than the radio show or the television show that I do or anything else that I do. I think right at the top of the list is the basic thing. And of course the basic thing is to hopefully stop people from killing anything. And to create a non-violent diet for themselves, because a non-violent world has roots in a non-violent diet.

It's been amazing, the number of commercials that I've done, starting back in 1968. It must be 8,000.