My mom was a dancer, my dad's a singer and I've always had that kind of music in my life.

I would have to agree, that I'm probably more intense than Brian or Kurt, competitive because, I was always like this, always being that way, always real competitive.

I trained and trained and went up against Kurt, then being a world champion in '94, and after that I did Tommy's tour and then my tour and all this stuff and just trying to deal with it all. And now, I've just kind of backed off a little.

When you are relaxed, you can focus a lot more easily than when you are hyper and over-energetic. It's important to be "up" for a competition, but you shouldn't have too much energy, because you might not be able to control it. In competitions, it is important to be able to bring the power and energy you are feeling down to a level that you can control. This comes with practice and experience.

But a lot of my training can be done in Aston - a lot of the hard work, so to speak. But a new atmosphere, a new place, and it's good for me because I didn't want to get stuck in one spot, so coming home is good, back and forth, you know, where my roots are.

All I know is that skating is getting better, the guys are getting better throughout the whole age range

I always push forward. It doesn't mean that I'll be perfect. I make mistakes -- but I learn from my mistakes, and move on.