Well, I was into music since I was a kid, ya know, back in Detroit. I say Detroit, but it was really a little suburb outside the city called Romeo.

Out stretched hands and one night stands, still I can't find love.

I got into rock and roll to piss my parents off and the establishment around me.

I fell in love. It was a great thing to be in love. I was a complete idiot in love.

As much as you don't want to say you are a vengeful person, when someone drags your name through the mud and plays press games and puts things out there like that, you are kind of like, alright. US Weekly will be gone next week, the songs I am writing won't.

I've just really been into melody and lyrics and songwriting. Writing a rap, to me, is easy. I could write a rap like that. But writing songs and melodies and s**t that's hopefully going to stick around for 30, 40 years is f**king hard...If you have good songs and you're talented, people will eventually come to your shows, people will buy your music.

I still love old-school hip-hop, but there hasn't been a lot that I've taken from the new stuff.