But the guitar, when you think about it, is the most versatile, really. I mean you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go.

For me there is something primitively soothing about this music, and it went straight to my nervous system, making me feel ten feet tall.

My identity shifted when I got into recovery. That's who I am now, and it actually gives me greater pleasure to have that identity than to be a musician or anything else, because it keeps me in a manageable size. When I'm down on the ground with my disease-which I'm happy to have-it gets me in tune. It gives me a spiritual anchor. Don't ask me to explain.

I found my God in music and the arts, with writers like Hermann Hesse, and musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter. In some way, in some form, my God was always there, but now I have learned to talk to him.

An obsession is where something will not leave your mind.

If you hand me a guitar, I'll play the blues. That's the place I automatically go.

I don't know if I believe in luck. I think I'm very fortunate.