You don't really know a song until you play it live.
I bought a book with guitar tabs and forced myself to learn. I would go to school and then come home and sit in my room for hours figuring out the songs.
At 13 I taught myself piano from an old song book, and Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' was the first song I learned.
I have a very connected history with Bilal. I heard his demo years ago. I heard all of the magic instantly. He's a master at interpretation of song.
You try to play the song better than you had before.
Lots of these songs I hadn't performed, but I've always wanted to. These are songs that I wanted to get in my wheelhouse. I sang them over and over and over and over again. Of course, I've fallen in love with them all.
You obviously learn each time you go on tour, with each concert, with each song, from all your mistakes. But everything we did was authentic.
A great singer has to learn how to inhabit a song.
You've got to really know your song, inside and out.
I had been practicing guitar about six months beforehand; I concentrated mostly on the songs I had to play. I got those down pretty well so they could use me actually playing.
