My dad's mission for me has always been to be a man they would write about, somebody that can be respected in the world.

I lived in lower-income neighborhoods in the inner city. Across the street were dark parts of the world. I've experienced the gamut, from third world to inner city to my parents working their way out of being secretaries and janitors to professors and real-estate people. They've shown me a path of perseverance and hard work in a peaceable way.

It starts with water. The kid who doesn't get to go to school because he's looking for water around his neck of the woods, that kid doesn't learn about HIV and then dies from AIDS. Or cholera or whatever. It all links back.

I'm bringing raw sex appeal. That's my whole thing.

I'm ingrained in a lot of - almost too many - causes and struggles around the world because that's where I come from.

My dad's mission for me has always been to be a man they would write about, somebody that can be respected in the world.

My dad almost died as a child from water-borne diseases in Ethiopia, and he had talked to me about digging a well in Ethiopia and I thought, I have too many friends and great people in my life that would be concerned with this subject of clean water.