I write the vocals last because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it.

Most songs have meager beginnings. You wake up in the morning you throw on your suspenders and you subvocalize and just think. They seem to form like calcium. I can't think of a story right off the bat that was that interesting. I write things on the back of my hand usually and sing into a tape recorder.

If I feel strongly I say it. I know I can do more good by being vocal than by staying quiet. I'd have a whole lot more money if I lied but I wouldn't enjoy spending it.

When I was six years old my friend was auditioning for 'Annie ' and I decided I wanted to audition with her. My mom was worried I would fall flat on my face because I'd never opened my mouth to sing so she sent me to vocal lessons. I did the audition and fell in love with the entire process of a show.

The church's teaching on marriage is unequivocal it is uniquely the union of a man and a woman and it is wrong that governments politicians or parliaments should seek to alter or destroy that reality.

And I loved Fats Waller. I love his instrumental abilities his vocal abilities and his sense of humor.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This and not much else is the essence of leadership.

I want to state upfront unequivocally and without doubt: I do not believe that any racial ethnic or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experiences.

What Whitney Houston has accomplished will never be accomplished. She's the most famous person on the planet as far as vocaling and her songs. So I'm very happy that I can sit here and say I had a chance to know her. And I'm still dazed that she's gone. But she lives because her music is so powerful.

Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country.