My original aim after 'The X Factor' was to earn enough money in a year to make the whole experience worth it - you know, buy a car, a flat.
Christmas was the one time of year when my brothers surfaced at home, when my parents and grandparents congregated to eat my mother's roast turkey.
My mother was a not-too-devoted atheist. She went to Episcopal church on Christmas Eve every year, and that was mostly it.
My father died when I was young and I was raised by my grandmother, Emma Klonjlaleh Brown. We could afford to eat chicken just once a year, on Christmas.
I've been in elementary education for years and my belief is that Christmas pageants in schools are little more than conditioning kids for the Christian religion.
I've taught fifth-year Christmas leavers last thing on a Friday afternoon. Basically, if you can face that you can face anything.
I made a Christmas album a couple of years ago and just put it out on my Web site. It kind of smacked of this flavor. All of the reviews said it was Western swing even when it was Christmas standards.
When I was a kid at four years old, that's when I started amateur wrestling with my dad and family. And when that's instilled in you, it never goes away.
I'm not an American, but I have this weird connection to America in different ways through my dad living here for five years, my godfather being an American who I'm very close to.
When my dad was in Vietnam, we lost a parent for a year. Thank God we didn't lose a parent for good.
My dad passed away before my freshman year, and it altered how I thought. I was depressed - I didn't hang out with my friends. I worked through it by dancing.
I worked with my dad for 15 years. I apprenticed under him and decided I wanted to become an architect. So I went to college for it and then the acting bug got me.
I'm a military kid, both parents in the military - Mom did 12 years, Dad did 21, served in two wars. So discipline is something that was huge.
My dad was an interior design and furniture person. I started working with him for four years before my first TV writing break.
When I was fifteen years old, my dad won a video camera in a corporate golf tournament. I snatched it from his closet and began filming skateboard videos with my friends.
Back in '93 and '94, when 'Dookie' was being made, my dad built this tour bus for us, out of a bookmobile. We toured in it for the first year. It was a really bad idea, by the way.
One of the things I like about when I tour sometimes is that occasionally you'll see a dad there with his 12-year-old son and they're both enjoying it.
I spent years working in low-budget horror films. When you've done 'Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death,' you can handle anything!
My father was an atheist, absent. He was a salesman; I was four years old when he told me that the end of life was death.
My wife Lucy was very sick for nearly three years prior to her death. At one time, I was in the hospital with her for six months.
In just three years, Iraq has achieved immense progress. It has had three successful elections in which 80% of their citizens voted, even while being threatened with death.
