Who brought me up to know better...

I'm learning all the time. I'm evolving all the time as a human being. I'm getting better, I hope, in all of the important ways.

The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring.

What I've learned over the years is that the craft of songwriting is trying to take the personal and make it universal - or in the case of telling a story, taking the universal and making it personal.

When I started playing, I played in R&B bands. I played James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and all that.

I expect if you're a professional public speaker, you probably wouldn't want to go onstage and sing and play drums.