You have to go out there and give a piece of yourself -- your life, your soul. And you better give the audience everything you can -- physically, emotionally, musically. Then maybe they'll accept you and give you a standing ovation at the end.

The lyrics aren't simple, either. They're extremely difficult because I'm trying to say complicated things in as few words as possible.

I thank the Lord for the night time.

Songwriting is different from music, although I don't deny now that it would be nice to have a little more background in music theory.

You like to think that it's something you created, but secretly you know that you had some kind of help, or somebody gave this to you.

I do have a large audience overseas, and I want to continue to be an international artist.

I've found for the last couple of years that the things that I can become most deeply involved with are songs that reflect my real feelings about things and so that what I've been writing about.