If you had told me when I was starting out that I would be coming down to Nashville, kind of weaving in and out of the country scene, I never would've thought that in a million years.

Surround yourself with good people. Whether they're the best or not, people are capable of learning if they've got good hearts and they're good souls.

My past is a bit checkered.

Everything I've done in my career has started in and around Detroit, you know, the metro area and Michigan.

Neither wealth or greatness render us happy.

I used to lie about my age at first because you always want to be 18, but then you start looking at it and you're 40, and the money's still coming. And you're like, 'Man, who cares about that?'

It became clear I wanted to be a development economist. I mean, I said I wanted to work on the economics of poor countries. And I'd actually say that I don't think that was so much about narrowing the gap as about increasing their incomes, which means economic growth, which is really my prime interest.

I certainly don't know a lot of anti-Semitic people, but I've got plenty of friends that have a whole bunch of Jew jokes up their sleeve, and every time it's relevant, it will come up.