Will.i.am and I performed at Wango Tango. That's when my daughter said that I had made it in music.

To be the leading man it's about the celebrity and the looks, and it's tough to do that. People who do it great are people like Tom Cruise and Will Smith - they're built for that. I ain't. I'm more of a character guy.

And perfect happiness? Man, that's a...the pool is about 92 degrees, the Jacuzzi is about 102 and an avocado farm.

Actually, music gave me the support when I needed it. I would never have gone to college unless I'd gotten a piano scholarship. And now I'm so glad I got to learn to play the cello, which is a different experience, you're flexing a different muscle, but it's beautiful because it is music.

Every single thing in my life is built around race.

We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn't have a sort of influence. It does.

I've had to be a man since I was 12 or 13. I had a job. And I was playing the piano for people twice my age. Handling responsibility is what makes a man a man.