There are so many things I want to do. Like I want to get an artist a musician a photographer and a bunch of dancers that I know and just travel across Africa and just film it and just see what happens. Do and learn as much as I possibly can. Luckily I have a lot more time.

I don't need a holiday or a feast to feel grateful for my children the sun the moon the roof over my head music and laughter but I like to take this time to take the path of thanks less traveled.

I progressed through so many different styles of music through my teen years both as a player and a vocalist particularly the jazz and pop of the early 20th Century.

You need to know what makes artists tick. Having been through the process myself as a musician since I was an early teen gave me an advantage - understanding them from their point of view because it's about them it's not about you - it's their vision and what they're capable of achieving and you're the conduit.

I see it as more of a teenage activity than you know she's only 11 but you know I think it's great that she knows so many girls who want to play music. And I see it more as a teen activity than I do as going into music.

Well I actually first got into music as a small child and as I became a teen I sought out making money from music weather that was singing lounge gigs backup in studios or weddings.

When I was a teen I thought I would have to choose between my writing or my music or my art but it turns out it's a difficult juggling game but I can do all of them.

When I started out as a music journalist at the end of the 1980s it was generally assumed that we were living through the lamest music era the world would ever see. But those were also the years when hip-hop exploded beatbox disco soared indie rock took off and new wave invented a language of teen angst.

Teen pop will never die as long as there are teens and popular music. It just takes a different head.

But when I was a teenager the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise.