I love both my parents dearly.

If you play jazz, then you play with your fingers. If you're playing rock, you use a pick. There's really no rhyme or reason to that other than that's just the way it has been.

I thought people cared about music in a deep way, so I was writing to that spirit in people and in myself. It was me, thinking I knew what was up. Youth, who else can change the world?

It is hard for a black man to just be himself. We spend so much time in defense of something that is indefensible because there is nothing to defend.

I really worked with icons in the music business, which really had a strong effect on me. It wasn't just pick-up gigs.

Serious musicians are finding it harder and harder to have a voice in the world of music these days.

I was playing violin for a long time, about 6 years. It takes a while. You need very patient people in your house when you have a violin.