I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi' on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote the song.

If I'm censoring for anyone, it's for my parents. They are very old-fashioned and moral people. They still don't understand me that well.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

People were very protective of me. Overly so. I was in the industry for a long time before I had any idea of what drugs people were doing.

Will you take me as I am? Strung out on another man...California, I'm comin' home.

I'm not a kiss-and-teller. I never named names.

The coming of the kids hasn't come out in my art yet.