The challenge is always as a writer, is this going to work, because it's a very intimate process, and I tend to be very introverted and insular, and when I write, it's in my head.

When I write a song it's always from the point of view: makes the song the best it can be.

A lot of the way I sing is playing off other musicians. It's what I love to do the most.

The Internet has been a blessing and a curse. The curse we know: A lot of people appropriating your intellectual property without paying for it. But I think it's important to realize the blessing of the Internet, which is that everybody has a voice and you can break through, even without a record company.

If you're trying to do what's popular now, you're way behind already. By the time you record it and do it and try to copy it, it's moved on.

Make sure everything you do you really like, because you have to sing it the rest of your life.

My son traveled the world with me on every tour. He wasn't a lover of school, so it was easy with him. I had a tutor on the road, keep him at the same level, so when he'd pop back home he'd go right back in.