My dad loved black singers. So listening to New Orleans music eventually I wanted to play an instrument.

Listen everything I did in my childhood was competitive. Everything we did my dad made it into a game to win. We used to drive my mum nuts.

My dad liked a lot of Motown but I didn't listen to it until my teenage years.

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.

I listened to the radio so I was influenced by everyone from Michael Jackson to Milli Vanilli. But thankfully my dad had a collection of Cat Stevens albums while my mom was listening to jazz.

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

Just remaining quietly in the presence of God listening to Him being attentive to Him requires a lot of courage and know-how.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

There is a bit of a movement as far as younger people in country music. That is cool because people are saying things like 'I didn't listen to country music until so-and-so came along.' And I'm like 'Yeah! Now you know why I love it.'

My favorite type of music to sing and to listen to you know rock. It's not always metal but you know half the time it is. Metal's cool you know? Not everybody on 'American Idol' listens to metal.