Because with Black Label and all the fans it's just one big family.
We were the ones that from the beginning said that 'Wide Open Spaces' was a hit. 'This is a hit, people are going to relate to it.'
People in England were coming up to me, saying, My mother and father turned me on to your music. This happened to me 20 years ago. When I was 40 they were saying that.
The one that achieved the greatest amount of success is the Eagles. And because it was really successful, it was a lot more fun. It still is. We get a chance to play music that a lot of people really relate to, and to play places all over the world. That's fun.
I'm not really a strange person or anything, so if there's music I like, usually there's other people who like it too.
I'd say we do reach somewhat of a younger audience, but I think for the most part that younger audience is picking our music up from a brother or sister or even parent, who is turning them onto the band.
The fans own the records and listen to them and love them. It becomes the soundtrack to some part of their lives, and we don't control that. To me, that's what's exciting about what we do.
Music is cyclical, but I've never thought of the music I make as being so off the wall or left field that it wouldn't always have an audience that would relate to it.
Brooklyn is where I primarily developed. I had an opportunity to make records and perform in clubs here and there, and I started networking with the right people in the right places.
For someone like me, who has grown up with Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, it's hard not to invest a lot of myself in what I do.
I have always loved the process of making the music, reading the letters from the fans who get married to my music, have children to my music and play my music at their funerals.
All my collaborations happen in different ways. Sometimes it's through a chance meeting at a festival or event, while others can happen just off the back of me liking their music and reaching out.
I believe in my kind of music and I'm happy to have reached out to people through my songs. My dream was to sing my compositions and get accepted by listeners.
I come from such a small place, and I've always really thought that if you make good music, then people will find it.
As far as I'm concerned, the whole point of making music is to get it heard by as many people as possible.
My audience are the same people who bought my albums years ago. These people are now married, with their own homes, their own families. If I'm in concert, I get people now who bring their kids.
In general, what fans talk about and think about become a very important source of inspiration to us, because we want to write something that's real to people, especially those who listen to BTS music.
Just to know that someone who's 15 years old is listening to my music and the work that I've done - it's definitely a blessing.
I'm not trying to rub shoulders with any record executives. If rubbing shoulders in the industry is what I wanted to do then I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.
I went to school and studied music for a year at USC, which unlocked a bunch of doors for me in terms of my relationship to music.
In a very broad statement, or mentality, you just want as many fans as you can have of your music. You want people to write songs for and connect with and play shows for.
When I travel I always try to see shows from a local group, and with the Internet it's important to have a global vision of music.
I think music is supposed to be shared.
I try not to become friends with musicians, but life happens and dinner happens and going out happens - it becomes interwoven in L.A.
That's the thing: I'm not opposed to working with people. I'm just not one of these people that feels the need to hop around the industry and get this guy's beat and get this guy's hook.
