Of course I'm going to say 'I'm a thug,' that's because I came from the gutter and I'm still here!

New Jersey shaped who and what I am. Growing up in Jersey gave you all the advantages of New York, but you were in its shadow. Anyone who's come from here will tell you that same story.

I knew Fred since I was 14 and was first going to the Old Town School, Fred used to work part-time in the store. Every time I wrote a song Fred would turn on his really good high-class tape recorder, reel-to-reel, and record it. So he's got recordings of me on guitar singing all my songs in his apartment long before I ever recorded for a recording company. I never found out what happened to the tapes.

Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and it was so hard that when I was in the field I sang all the time. Usually gospel songs because they lifted me up above that black dirt.

The lesson I've learned the most often in life is that you're always going to know more in the future than you know now.

This is a new point in my life, and things are totally changing. But like the sunsets I saw on Tybee Island, the miles I've already gone are going to stay with me.