I can't read sheet music, I have to just listen to it, and then just go for it.

Writing the songs and producing the songs and arranging them and recording them is your canvas and your palette and your brush.

I see love, like art, as an obsession. Maybe that's an overly romantic view of human existence, but I'm an overly romantic human being. If love, like rock and roll, doesn't consume me 24-7, it's not love. It can be respect, appreciation, admiration, wonderment, it can be a world of glory and a lifetime of peace, but I can't call it love. Love burns me and confuses me. Love's a light that can't be extinguished.

The thing is, unfortunately, I write the best songs when I'm miserable.

When you're really looking forward to something, you don't feel the sense of pressure.

To be a great band it's like you have that telepathy. You know when the bass player's in back of you without even looking. You know when your guitar player's coming up to you to lean up to you and sing into your microphone. You just know these things. You feel it. You feel the energy of it.

Great classic music that I've been turned on to has not only inspired and influenced me, but it has had an effect on my songwriting.