I met some people who showed me a path in music where they were like hey, look, while yes, it can have to do with being popular and making money, it DOESN'T have to be.

Man, you learn so much just like with anything else. If you do something long enough, you learn. You make mistakes. You run into roadblocks and barriers. You overcome obstacles. You fall down. I mean you have to fall down to learn to stand up.

It's always important to draw a line somewhere in a respectful way where you're still approachable, you're still there for the people and meeting them halfway, but you're not neglecting your own duties and your own time to rejuvenate to be able to do it again.

We can use music as a tool to overcome things. It was a beautiful age and realization for me, an awakening. I felt like my eyes were opened. It was like, you mean to tell me that I have the opportunity when I'm bottling stuff up, wanting to smash windows and breaking down walls, I can put that energy into a song and wake up the next day with that weight lifted?

People showed me this way of dealing with music, writing songs, thinking about music and shows and our community and the fact that it doesn't have to be about being popular or fashion or making money.

Over the years since then though, I couldn't even begin to try and count all the mistakes I've made but also, all the joys I've found while traveling on the road. So in living this kind of lifestyle day in and day out for that many years you learn. You learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about how people should be treated and how they should treat each other. For the most part, I've really learned patience, temperament and fairness all around.

Creating records and writing music with people I admire and respect is a very spiritual and enlightening thing for me.