The artist in me cries out for design.

Of all the artists on Death Row none of them went bankrupt.

I think Prince should open up a little more to other artists. Just because we love Prince. Especially the old stuff - we love him to death. But if he opened up he would be something to deal with. Imagine Kanye West producing a Prince track? It would be banoodles!

I feel like I am a real artist and I want to be able to feel what I am singing about. So when I sing 'Leave (Get Out) ' I have been through that. I think it is just a new generation whether people are ready for it or not. Teenagers are dating.

My dad was an engineer and so I had this picture of science and technology and pursuits of the mind as being more impressive than artistic pursuits which I saw a as kind of frivolous.

Life is different than it was in the Nineties. I'm a dad and there are other things I have to get done in an afternoon than just being an artist.

I'm an artist and I go in the studio and make my music. And then I'll give it to my dad and he does what he does. And he does you know the press and figuring out shows and whatnot. When it comes to my artistic freedom he doesn't like step on my toes or anything.

My dad was a huge country music fan but he also had a band and he sang. So he'd listen to a lot of music and the songs that he'd learn for the band were more from the male artists. So my earliest country memories were Waylon Jennings Conway Twitty George Jones Johnny Paycheck even.

My dad was always such a frustrated artist. He always worked very hard to support his family doing a bunch of ridiculous jobs. He wanted to be a painter but then he also wrote science-fiction novels in his spare time.

Within our culture every school has a swimming pool. We lived on the coast. People swam in the surf. It's a very sporty nation and at that particular time anyone who had an artistic bent was very much an outsider. So if you liked reading or ideas or playing the piano then your dad viewed you as a sissy basically.