As a new artist there's always outside influences trying to tell you how to make a song better for radio and how to do your hair.

No matter who we are, no matter what our circumstances, our feelings and emotions are universal. And music has always been a great way to make people aware of that connection. It can help you open up a part of yourself and express feelings you didn't know you were feeling. It's risky to let that happen. But it's a risk you have to take-because only then will you find you're not alone.

I've been aware of my gay fans since album one. There has been such great support from that community and it has gone both ways.

Every day I lugged my backpack through the halls, waiting for the final bell. Then I'd race home and hole up in my room, playing the drums and the piano, composing music.

If I'm in a relationship, I'll go to the ends of the earth. If I'm on the road and we have a conversation, and she says, "God, I really wish I was there with you right now," I'll hang up the phone, send a car, and have the plane ready.

It wasn't that I got pinned against my locker, but I was intensely aware that the things I valued weren't shared by anyone. Girls didn't like me, and I had few friends.

I was the boy who liked to sing his own songs at talent shows, and I was suddenly officially uncool.