I had just lost my dad and I remembered all the songs we used to go and hear at concerts, and the records around the house and sometimes we'd play together.
Toward the later days of Sabbath, instead of going in and knocking out what songs we did in rehearsal, we would polish them to death.
I dream crazy vivid dreams. Like, entire movies. And sometimes I write songs about them.
I've had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I've often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.
Music critics think of lyrics first and don't consider melody but so many songs are lyrically depressing but musically great, and that's why they become classics.
The advice I have for new artists is this - write great songs and play them live as often as possible. Get residencies all over town and crush it.
Songwriting is actually a really great outlet. I kind of recommend it. You get to sum up whatever is going on in your life in a song, then perform it really passionately.
I think the great country songs mixed with some of that bluegrass instrumentation - and surrounding all that with a little bit of a rock vibe and energy - is the kind of music I make.
What makes a great song - you don't put it into words. You feel it. The perfect lyric. The perfect melody. It makes you feel something.
Don't try to follow any trends, just concentrate on writing great songs and knowing your instrument. All the other stuff will fall into place.
Feeling emotionally connected to a song, and accumulating every bit of the moment's energy to sing out to the audience is what I believe makes a great performer.
I did this thing with Trisha Yearwood, a song called 'The Price.' I had been sitting on it for a while, because I figured, you know, this really needs a good singer.
A lot of the songs are written on piano or guitar, so I contribute, and I have done so since the beginning. So it's been good to be involved completely musically as well.
Between the record companies being the way they are and the fact that people can just download one song instead of buying a whole album, it's hard to make a good living nowadays.
Any song I have to work on longer than a day, I just leave it. It's not gonna work. Everything that's good is really instant.
Some of the songs I do once in a while that I kinda... my set list is basically like my hits, there is a good reason why they are there; people really like them.
Old school Janet Jackson is always good. I usually go old school, it's very rare that I pick a song from nowadays.
I've never been good at rock'n'roll songs, anyway; either I'm blessed or I'm cursed, but whatever I write comes out sounding old.
I guess you could write a good song if your heart hadn't been broken, but I don't know of anyone whose heart hasn't been broken.
A lot of times songs are very much of a moment, that you just encapsulate. They come to you, you write them, you feel good that day, or bad that day.
If my life were a song, what would it be? 'A Never Ending Road of Musical Good Times'.
