It never crossed my mind that one day I'm gonna be big and famous and have my own TV show, you know?
I never expect I would become a K-pop star.
It's really important that young people realise very rarely do you become an overnight success.
At the beginning of my career, I worked for a lot of people who nobody knew, who have come up to be people that everybody knows.
I knew Kanye way before he was signed.
The public made me and then encouraged me for many years, and my future even now depends upon it.
I didn't go through the routine of singing in small clubs and doing open mics and working so hard the way a lot of people do and did. It was just an overnight kind of thing.
I always knew I wanted to be involved in entertainment in some way. But I really can't say I'd be where I am now if I hadn't been on 'American Idol.'
I want to be Gary Barlow and peak when I'm 40. That's my plan - he's who I'm modeling myself on. Most people are completely beautiful when they're young, and then there's always a point when they get older where they say: 'Oh, what happened?!'
It's gotten to the point where it's big news when I don't do a horror film.
I would love to be like Justin Bieber or Selena Gomez. They were catapulted into stardom when they were so young - like I was - and they still haven't gone down the wrong path and I hope neither or them will. I find that really inspiring.
From the time I was 8 years old I was on almost every radio show there was.
I wanted to be a political science professor and go to school in Boston. I never wanted to be a big, famous movie star and TV star. It kind of found me.
I was doing sold-out shows before I got radio play.
The Beatles in 1963 came to America and became international celebrities, but Bobby Fischer was one of the first, as Elvis was, more in terms of the message created around him.
A lot of YouTubers get that mainstream celebrity, they get these big deals, maybe a book deal or a TV deal or whatever it is they aspired to do, and they kind of abandon ship on what got them to that point.
I knew who Bruce Springsteen was before he had his first record.
I was famous overnight. I went from nowhere to being really big.
Let's take it back to John Cena and Rock back in the day, when people felt like they was just shoved down their throats. Eventually, they earned the people's respect, and the next thing you know, they were just loved by the whole world.
Music was never a priority for me, and I seriously do not know how I got so big.
It has been wild, you know? I started out just putting a song that I made out on the Internet without being sure if anyone was going to like it, and it took me on tour around the world with Justin Bieber. It's been amazing!
I've been around so long that I've seen rappers make it and plummet.
Look, the fame rocket is only on the upward trajectory for a limited time.
I started in the industry when I was 4 years old, but I started in the spotlight when I was 11 years old, when I got 'Modern Family.'
I didn't end up some sad, tragic guy singing in a lounge somewhere. I never went out and took big money for nostalgia and became like an oldies act.
