If people don't like what I'm doing I really don't have time to hear it. I'm doing something good with my life and I challenge them to do the same.

I was living on the wrong side of the tracks in Evanston, Illinois, in a home for boys. We had these Jackson 5 records. I really related to their voices - they were about my age, but they were doing it.

Delight, Delight, Delight...in our youth.

There's a lot of bands that get to a certain level, and it just stops. They scrap it. Compare this to, say, The Rolling Stones or The Who, where they just continued on forever and are still playing, or they quit after 20 years.

I'm optimistic yet disillusioned, hopeful yet frustrated.

Music saved me; I mean, my upbringing was like a hurricane, and music was the tree I held onto.

You know, rock stardom... I have a hard time discussing that because I don't really accept it. It's not really that tangible. What's really bizarre is how it's used as a thing - you know, 'He's the rock star of politics,' 'He's the rock star of quarterbacks' - like it's the greatest thing in the world.