The evolution of the music is what allows it to survive.

If I wanted the ticket to be a $200 ticket, I'd have made it a $200 ticket, but I don't want it to be that.

I'm going to do everything I can to keep from being mainstream.

If I was concerned about my legacy, there’s no way I would ever sit there [and be a reality-show judge]. Once your career becomes about some¬thing other than the music, then that’s what it is. I’ll never make that mistake.

Stay young and wild as long as you can

The key to songwriting is just to be able to observe, and put yourself in situations to be around people, and let those ideas come to you.

When you play the bars, you pay your dues. It does matter that you know those things [songs]. And the great thing for me, too, is that I draw on that stuff as influences. It's also stuff that you put in the tank that you pull from to make records.