Sometimes, reading my own media, the negativity can upset me, but I just deal with things on a positive basis. I mean, I have up to 20,000 people singing my words back to me on a nightly basis - they share my hopes and fears, and they relate to my own life experiences. Life can be pretty isolating, but that connection is always amazing.

It's always nice to be able to capture your life's experiences in a song and hold the emotion in that way.

Every person I've met has influenced my songs.

As a singer-songwriter who gets up on stage and sings about those things that make me vulnerable is an amazing experience. You get up on stage and effectively take your clothes off in front of thousands of people.

I write, "Give me reason but don't give me choice, because I'll make the same mistake again." I think that's what most men want to be told.

I never really set out to do anything in the charts with music. It came as a total surprise that I did, and it's fun.

To come home and share life experiences with friends is the key to what makes me feel really alive.