When I look at myself, I'd like not to have hair on the top of the ceiling.

I wanted a child, and there was no way I could get pregnant under the stress of 18-hour work days and live TV. When you're somebody who's used to making a decision about what they want to do and getting it and achieving it, when your body fails you, it's a whole other experience.

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.

I don't go to record stores to look at my albums, but it's always a thrill to see them.

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.

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.

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.