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.

Music is so 100 percent for me that the idea of giving that up in any way, shape, or form would be terrifying to me.

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.

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.

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

I know that life is a journey I must accept and that pain and confusion are temporary. I know that if I follow my heart, it will lead me where I belong.

When I started in the music business, travel became a huge part of my world, where it hadn't been at all. I visited parts of the world that I'd never been to and found that I was spending maybe 30 days at home a year.