It could appear that I'm some kind of natural genius, but it's just a million small lessons I've picked up over the years.

Most of the songs I write just very directly from my life. I don't have a big imagination. Whenever I tried to write from fantasy, it comes out sounding really fake.

It is cool to have a label head that is also a songwriter, in a band, and produces records.

I enjoy listening to the albums of my youth as much as ever.

The reason I started with prostitutes was solely to work on my negotiating skills. Once I mastered negotiating with naked women, dealing with Interscope was a piece of cake.

The internet has not granted us more control in relation to the record company because we're still bound by an agreement with them not to release our music without their consent. But they generally let us do what we want, anyway, so it doesn't matter who's officially in control.

I never feel guilty about liking music.