I've never personally criticized anyone else's music, but I know that the public's real problem is not the music I make but the perception that I play simple music for money only and for the notoriety and to increase my popularity.
I just want to make music, I don't want people to talk about me. All I've ever wanted to do was sing. I don't want to be a celebrity. I don't want to be in people's faces, you know, constantly on covers of magazine that I haven't even known I'm on.
If it was up to me, it would be nice not ever to get stopped on the street, because we just do music. I didn't do this to become a celebrity.
I never believed that U2 wanted to save the whales. I don't believe that The Beastie Boys are ready to lay it down for Tibet.
In the songs I can still be really really direct but in interviews when I'm explaining my songs I shouldn't be so direct about who they're about.
I think the fans really wanna hear the songs the way they sound on the record.
It's important for country fans to know that I'm not just trying to come in and take their money for a CD.
I never sent promotional copies to Christian radio stations in my life. It's not what I'm interested in.
I find it quite difficult to think that there's, you know, about 20 million people listening to my album that I wrote very selfishly to get over a breakup. I didn't write it being that it's going to be a hit.
Some musicians don't have strong opinions, or they deliberately don't have strong opinions because they want to try and sell as many records as possible.
I never set out to be a cult cool artist. I always made music that I thought was pop.
There are still recording artists out there doing things for the right reason, but a lot of people seem to be just driven by fame.
I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan.
The more producers I talked to, the more I got looked at like I was crazy for wanting to make a live-sounding album.
'The Taxi Ride,' from my second album, is one people want to hear a lot. I'm consciously trying to walk on the sunny side of the street, to really lift myself into a place of greater positivity, and that's a sad song.
If part of the purpose of making an album is to get some radio play, then you might as well think about that. But that's not really how we picked the songs.
