I started out on guitar when I was nine years old, and I started playing bars and stuff when I was thirteen, and I've been playing ever since.

I found it more pleasurable to write something, sing a melody over it. At a very young age, I kind of honed my writing skills, I guess.

I grew up in a really bad situation; my father left when I was young - you know, an abusive situation. So the minute I put my fingers on a guitar and closed my eyes and just played, it literally was like a drug. It took me into a totally different world, and I just pulled from emotions and experiences that I was going through.

I just never doubted myself. I always knew I was going to do something.

Music has been more, you know, the only thing I've ever known.

The fact that my dad was never around gave me a lot of determination. It really set this fire full of fuel, so to speak. It didn't matter what anybody was telling me, how many times I got rejected, because it was never as bad as being rejected by your own father.

The only thing I knew how to do was draw and play music.