Being on 'Grease: Live' was a massive mile marker. It ultimately led me to 'Hamilton.'
Everybody in Seattle thought I was the chosen one, musically wise. You know, if anyone was going to make it, it was going to be that guy.
When I was offered to sing 'Tere Bina' in 'Guru' by A. R. Rahman sir, it was a surreal experience. The song clicked, and many composers took notice of me and my work then.
I was always the Doubting Thomas of the bunch, and I don't think I was convinced about the Allman Brothers until 'Fillmore East' hit - that one removed all doubt!
It was like treading water all through the '60s, and when 1970 kicked in, I thought "We're here. Right." God, this is exciting. I'm going to go for it now. I really felt it was my time. Then Marc Bolan did it first. That really pissed me off.
When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it was so big at the time, I decided that I would pursue the songwriting thing. I was 34 years old at that time. I'd been down the pike and back before I had any success at all.
You knew after eight bars that you were hearing something just absolutely new and unique.
It wasn't the muso thing that got me recognition in the beginning. It was doing 'Wild Thing.'
When we started Aventura, I think a lot of - the reason why we became so successful besides, you know, doing good music, was also the fact that it was unique and different and never done.
There's a band in a garage right now writing songs for an album that will do the same thing 'Nevermind' did some 20 years ago. We don't know who and where, but it will f***ing happen again. All it takes is for that storm to break.
San Diego is where I really started to get my legs, musically.
England has had a lot of really bad periods of music, but it's had several amazing periods where they've found an incredible balance, not just between music that's a rather complex and also pretty direct. Like the Beatles.
Because of our excessive touring and not giving up, it wasn't until 'Toys' came out that 'Dream On' really caught on. And then, of course, 'Walk This Way' crept up after that. Things went our way after that.
For anyone that's ever had a musical breakthrough in their career, it's always followed by the departure period right after.
I got that first record out, it came out in '47... Then my name began to ring around. I began to take over. From that point, I tell you, Chicago was in my hand, all the more time that those guys had to listen to me.
Anybody that has followed closely what I've been doing can see from 'Home,' being as big a hit as it was, it kind of opened the door for me to try new things musically.
Do you know the solo at the end of 'Why Don't You Love Me Any More?' that sounds like a chainsaw breaking through? That is what I can't do with my voice. That's when you hear how painful this has been to me.
