People expect you to be this weird cartoon sometimes when you're a musician. I hate that. I hate standing out. I hate people looking at me. I just want to be part of the crowd.
I spent 25 years clearly understanding that I'm not gonna meet Bono or the Edge. But then it happened at the Grammys when we were all backstage and I just about fell out of my shoes.
It's like they had a backlash the first 11 years. I think the reason why it always seems like there's a backlash is because when bands are unknown, they only get written about by fans.
After doing 'Doctor Who,' I'm open-minded to doing more acting. Part of the reason you do a show like this is because it creates other opportunities you haven't had before.
From as young as I can remember, I always wanted to be a singer... My mum taught me 'Going Down the Garden to Eat Worms' for a competition when I was about 4.
I get 'voluptuous' a lot, or 'shapely,' but the fact is that as you get older you learn to embrace your body type. I wasn't able to do that until I was at least 23.
Japan is quite weird because they wait for you to say something before they respond. You can literally hear a pin drop, they don't make a sound until you say something to the crowd.
I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. It reminds me of when we were just starting out because we would open for other bands in the beginning.
The song Dakota was first written in Paris. I was doing a promo trip. It was snowing and the hotel room was really cold and boring and for some reason I just had a go of the guitar and the song came pretty quick.
We changed every lead in our whole system, and to this day we still don't really know why it did it. We think wires were touching and faulting. That was it really, but it didn't make it any easier.
When I first knew I was having children, I thought I wanted boys, but then I thought I'd be better with girls. I'm quite sensitive, and you get more cuddles with girls. And they like their dads.
When you make a decision, you need facts. If those facts are in your brain, they're at your fingertips. If they're all in Google somewhere, you may not make the right decision on the spur of the moment.
I knew that I could be more creative onstage, to state my own case and deliver my own interpretation of the role much more aggressively than in the recording studio.
From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.
I do like the idea of pulling in different producers to get new perspectives. That's what I did with Vows and I feel it just gives variety and makes for a more exciting journey for the listener.
You can get really left of centre influences in mainstream pop. Michael Jackson and Prince are some of the most progressive artists ever if you actually dissect their songs there's some crazy stuff going on.
I'm in the camp that needs to discover and take risks, sometimes it's with the promise of something special and new, sometimes it's to stay awake, either way it's much more stressful with all the uncertainty but worth the pain in the end.
It's hard to come across someone who can look past an artist who is larger and just see them for the talent they are and have them be willing to invest what's necessary to make them a star.
I would have strong opinions and be prepared to argue my case, but if you talk to my colleagues, I think you'd find they consider me the jokester, the informal mayor of the West Wing.
I have always had stuff on the Internet. Way back in the Myspace days, I had a lot of friends on Myspace. And it is just all about, like, networking - contacting people and showing people, like, your mind.
I probably wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the gay community supporting me. I wouldn't be the artist I was today if it wasn't for that because that was the only community that let me try, let me perform without knowing who I was.
