I'm just not interested in selling out to get on the charts and make people happy

I was always writing music anyway. I just sort of fell into it. Writing for me is a therapeutic process.

I like Jailhouse Rock and Love Me Tender. The black-and-white films. With music, I tend more toward the '70s stuff because I was at the shows for those, so they bring back memories.

I don't think I realized what was going to be the hardest part of becaming an artist until I dove off the diving board ... first I had to overcome a pre-speculated idea of me. I had to sort of burst through that and introduce myself, and that was the first hurdle, and then now sing in front of everybody, and then that was the second one, and I'm the offspring of - you know, who I'm the offspring of - I had a few hurdles to get through, no doubt about it. But the scales never tipped in the other direction too much.

I saw a Velveeta commercial and it was playing, I think 'Burning Love.' He [Michael Jackson] had approved it - that's something we can't control. He can do whatever he wants with the songs he owns to make money, and that got under my skin.

I went through a huge transition in my life where everything and everyone I knew and trusted didn't turn out to be that way.

I don't ascribe to any particular style or period.