When I was a kid, the world was such a big place, and I had no idea that I would be afforded these great moments in between doing what I love to do.

Everybody's got something to tell you. And most people have told me to do the obvious thing as far as my career goes. Which would have sent me tottering into the abyss.

I love the feeling of letting fly, of pushing as far as I could go with my voice. The only way you can really graduate how you do it is by doing it regularly to people who don't have to be super impressed. You can do it in the studio all day long but you don't get the flashback that you get onstage.

Soon, I'm going to need help crossing the street.

I've still got a twinkle in me.

Now I'm a blithering oaf hanging on to the coatsleeves of commerciality.

So for a long time I closed my eyes to the possibility of America having a white voice.