Critics who attack my wife bug me. It makes me want to pay 'em a visit so I could give 'em a good punch in the nose.

I don't think that the universal themes of love, compassion, and forgiveness (are present). (You're) searching constantly for the next step, the next level and consciousness in your spirituality, who you are as a human being and what you contribute to society or what God means to you is always a course everyone goes on.

It saddens me to think that there are children in America who are hungry every day of their lives. No one can live - and grow - withoiut such a fundamental necessity as food. If we Americans reach out to our own communities, we could end this crisis.

There's rises and falls and ups and downs in all music.

I grew up in Louisiana, and I grew up with a dysfunctional family with some very serious abuse from my stepfather, who could be a very beautiful person on one hand and be terrible on the other, so it leaves your soul troubled as a child.

I feel like that I'm learning all the time. I'm learning from new artists, from established artists... every time I listen to '70s rock 'n' roll records, I'm learning. And I think that I'm just now starting to get a hold on what I do.

Everybody loves a sad ballad because it's cathartic. For artists, in a lot of ways, that's sort of our therapy sessions is when you're singing a song.