When you grow up in the music industry trying to be Britney Spears because that's what sells records and then you realize 'All I have to do is be myself? I should have thought of that a long time ago ' it feels good to have success come from what's actually inside of you.

I came through folk music simply because it was easy to get into it.

There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down.

Also because people like to multitask in a way if you've got a bit of music on in the background and the lyrical content is making you want to listen to it then that would probably put you off the texting you wanted to do. I think people like things that just make that right kind of noise but leave your brain free to do something else.

I always preferred to hang out with the outcasts 'cause they were cooler they had better taste in music for one thing I guess because they had more time to develop one with the lack of social interaction they had!

A lot of the music that you listen to now is because of the things that the Meters did the Neville Brothers did and they're there the guys who invented those beats that the guys sample today. Such an enormous opportunity.

The Christian community latched onto a lot of my music because there were a lot of things about my struggle they related to. But I didn't really want to come out and be identified as a Christian because I didn't want to be a hypocrite because my life wasn't right.

I think it's a mistake where rap music is these days. It doesn't seem to be able to look out of the ghetto and that's ultimately unfortunate because it defines our limitations.

I like so many different kinds of music just because all I did was listen to the radio as a kid.

It's a really unfair world because life is where I am all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.