It is the same in love as in war; a fortress that parleys is half taken.
That's a skill that I'm proud of: to be able to be a jazz musician and go a bit crazy sometimes and other times be able to pull it all in and lay it down like a track.
My first memories of life were in rehearsal; thats why I can sleep through anything.
Ive heard some people say that Im selling out, but Im not. If I hadnt done Black Radio, and just kept on doing just piano trio stuff, I wouldnt be honest with myself; Id be doing it to please other people. That would be selling out.
Once I started getting mainstream people to my shows, I realized we were taking too many solos, and they were too long. I started gauging when people were going on their iPhones.
It's funny, now that we have Twitter and Facebook and stuff, you can really see how you affect fans. Before all that, fans couldn't tell you exactly how they feel, unless they came up after a show, and even then you can't stand there and talk to everybody in the audience. So it's nice to see people tweet me and say, "Your music has changed my life," or "I had my baby to your music," or "I got married to your music. " I've heard so many things, and it's amazing to hear people's stories and how you affect their life.
If I was a singer who won those Grammys, I'd be gracing all the magazine covers. . . I barely got asked to do an interview.
I just think its the changes that age brings. You slow down a little bit. . . the writers are smart enough to write all those changes that life gives you.
Most kids are smarter than most grown-ups. Kids see the world in black and white. . . They look through all the garbage and see a world run by fools and dullards and lazy people. And there's nothing they can do about it because they have no power.
If you've never felt that you quite got a hold of it, you just feel that before you die, you've got to try and get it right once. And hope that the experience you have makes up for the some of the diminishing energy.
Our government treats the LGBT community like second-class citizens.