I wanted to take up music so my father bought me a blunt instrument. He told me to knock myself out.

It was my father who taught me to value myself. He told me that I was uncommonly beautiful and that I was the most precious thing in his life.

Unjust. How many times I've used that word scolded myself with it. All I mean by it now is that I don't have the final courage to say that I refuse to preside over violations against myself and to hell with justice.

There's only one requirement of any of us and that is to be courageous. Because courage as you might know defines all other human behavior. And I believe - because I've done a little of this myself - pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing.

I'm grateful to God for His bountiful gifts... He gave me courage and faith in myself.

I never had a cool older brother or sister to turn me on to cool music. I had to discover it for myself.

I was raised to believe in myself. I know I'm cool. I'm not trying to brag or say I'm the man or anything like that. I don't lie or cheat and I'm not mean to anybody. I treat people with respect.

The cool wind blew in my face and all at once I felt as if I had shed dullness from myself. Before me lay a long gray line with a black mark down the center. The birds were singing. It was spring.

I wouldn't compare myself to any past Idol contestant because I don't feel like I am like any of them. Maybe stories are cool but my story is different from most people's story. I don't like to compare myself to other people I like to just be me.

That wasn't the way that things was supposed to be. And all because the so-called culture that I thought was right that I thought it was cool and I thought it was fun and it was exciting at the time. It all led to me laying in a prison bunk by myself with no one to talk to but myself.