We're in a period where society seems very attracted to flash, and that seeps into people's musical taste.

Heartache is very fertile ground for song-making but so is happiness, so is absolute bliss.

It was kind of easier for me to do records that didn't take a year or two years of my life to write and to make.

Country music was a part of my life. Now it isn't. We had a good relationship, really, but we wanted each other at arm's length. The people in Nashville didn't want to be responsible for my looks or my actions. But they sure did like the listeners I brought.

I think I don't sing as hard as I used to sing. I used to kind of hit the accelerator a lot back in my youth, but now it's just being able to control it, and not work it so hard and use more of an emotional or sub textual kind of approach to singing.

The older I get, the more I embrace who I am.

I think I have a better sense of my weaknesses - being self-important, selfish and having a big ego probably triggers all the other stuff. I can see myself more clearly.