I awake, I meditate, get the kids off to school, go to the gym, go to the Favored Nations office, and usually at around 1 pm I'm home and do music the rest of the day.

It is only the most elite of elite musicians whose unconventional approach becomes convention.

I'm a big fan of cultural music, and that's how I try to expand my playing, by listening to music that is not conventionally American.

The only time I'm miserable is when I can't keep an instrument in tune.

I'm always pursuing knowledge; I'm a seeker of spiritual equilibrium - and music is a big part of that.

My past is very interesting, and I treasure it, but to write about it, it's just not on my radar.

If you want to play something that you hear, you need to listen with your mind's eye. You've heard of the mind's eye, right? Your mind has an ear too. It's a kind of listening, but it's not using your ears to listen. It's listening with your inner ear, and that's what you want to translate onto the guitar.