It's great to have other people's help. Then the music gets heard. There's a lot more commercial support for that now.

I love playing to people and seeing them react.

Seeing how those companies operate, it didn't amount to a massive vote of confidence in their artists. There was talk of me going to Columbia after that, but nothing happened. I got disillusioned, and I pulled back.

My father had a varied ear, from Hank Williams to Ravel.

I was very lucky. Things happened, both bad and good, but I never got into real, deep trouble. But it wore me down. By the time I was 18, I was done. I didn't want to live the life any more. I needed to develop past the point that busking takes you to.

Once I was in the city, I really enjoyed it. Just to experience things. There was so much new stuff.

I was just learning to play guitar when Tracy Chapman came out. She wrote these songs, she played them by herself and I so admired her for that.