I first came to London when I was 22 and working as a roadie. Having watched the 'News At Ten' all my life, I thought Big Ben was going to be massive, but I was underwhelmed.
I played a lot of nightclubs in and around Tulsa till I was about 22, 24 years old, then I started travellin' around.
When I leave backstage, some of the fans ask if I'm a roadie, and I just tell them, 'No, I'm the bus driver.' And, of course, they believe it.
I was the only kid at Camp Don Bosco who would admit he was an alter boy back home, so I served two masses a day all summer. But I loved the cassock and surplice, ringing the bells, lighting the candles - it was like being a glamrock roadie for God.
My dad Peter, who was my roadie when I was starting out, had loads of confidence but couldn't sing.
When my dad went to college to get his master's from Loyola, he was playing Debussy and Chopin and Beethoven. But he played all that New Orleans stuff, too. I would go with my dad to gigs, pick up the piano and the speakers, and I would be like his roadie.
I've been lucky enough to work with a make-up artist, Joel Harlow, who you can throw anything at. I said, "Joel, I need to go to the London eye with my children and I want to look like a roadie from Lynyrd Skynyrd."
My first artist bus was Jason Aldean's old bus, with deer antlers over the lights and cowhide on the back of the couches. It was such an absolute dude bus.
As a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I learned that I should give up being a guitar player.
I knew from the time I was 6 or 7 that music was something I had to do. Growing up, my parents did everything they knew how to do to support me. My dad was always kinda my roadie; he drove me from gig to gig. But I got my own gigs. I was this 12-year-old kid, shuffling business cards, calling people, telling them I wanted to play.
