Here's the thing. Just because you're pro-troops doesn't mean you're pro-war. And just because you're anti-war doesn't mean you're anti-troops. Just because you don't support the war people think you are anti-troops and you are a bad guy.

Health care's a great example. We spend billions of dollars a year in foreign aid helping people in countries where the money never gets to see the bottom tier, because the bad, corrupt politicians in the government that they have there end up taking what we give them.

I get more respect from rap artists than I do from my own industry. I don't always write the kind of music that country executives want. Rappers are like that too .. my words come from the street, and their words come from the street. That slicked-up pop stuff doesn't come from the street, it's all pre-fab.

I've been a lifetime Democrat, and I'm re-registering this year as an independent. It's strictly [because] my party, that I've been affiliated with all these years, doesn't stand for anything that I stand for anymore. They've lost any sensibility that they had, and they've allowed all the kooks in, so I'm going independent.

Well, I couldn't do the day-to-day stuff of being a politician or anything, but I just think everybody should have an opinion and everybody should vote, and that's what we're built on.

Writing songs and looking for ideas is like blinking my eyes. It's an involuntary muscle. I do it without thought.

Somebody's sexual preference is, like, who cares?