What I ended up doing was becoming an actor who didn't mind doing other people's words.

I learned to play guitar at a young age and converted poems and stuff that I had written to songs.

I have to be very careful about how often I drag my family to places. They need some stability in their lives.

But I always held my music up and protected it from compromise. So I just do it for my friends. I've written hundreds of songs, and I'm sure I have a few albums worth of songs.

I directed an episode of Touched by an Angel a couple of months ago, and I will be doing more of that. I just like to keep a bit of variety going; it keeps things interesting.

But we were doing plays and movies which I had nothing to do with other than being a producer, and I don't have that kind of interest or time any more.

Then when I got to Hollywood, the first musical I did was Festival in 1977.