Yeah... I was a singer as a kid. I had a lot of stage fright, and what's happened with "Idol," it has got me past so much of that.

Just because you're a star on television doesn't mean that you can be a music phenomenon or an artist. You have to have the material to back it, and it's all about hit songs. I can name you every "Idol" winner and why they didn't go on to have success - their songs. The ones who have - their songs.

I'm a native New Yorker, so I'm edgier; I kind of tell it like it is.

I felt like I got more comfortable on "Idol" when I just started being myself and not trying to be what I thought I had to be.

I've never in my life bought a big piece of jewelry - like, 'I'm gonna get myself a big piece of jewelry!' Songwriters' lives are unstable and up and down. Even though mine has sort of has followed more of a going toward the sky trajectory.

Listen to the Bee Gees and you can learn to be a great writer.

I don't think people really understood what I did. And you know, in my book, 'A Helluva High Note' deals with my back story, that I was a songwriter, that I spent years trying to hone my craft and being rejected and then finally becoming a successful songwriter, record executive and publisher.