The one mentality I've always tried to have is that no matter what stage in your career that you are in as a musician or a performer or a songwriter or whatever, there's always more to learn.

I think my favorite song from another artist would have to be 'Superstition' by Stevie Wonder.

My real musical discovery started when I was 10 with Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5, and acts that I connected with because they were young when they were doing it, like me. Then I kind of came into my own a couple of years later; I found new artists that shaped my musical landscape. For instance, Kings of Leon played a big part in that.

I kind of date my musical discovery back to when I was 13 years old, getting my iTunes account and using that as a major tool to discover new music.

There are folks who now know black families - like the Johnsons on 'Black-ish' or the folks on 'Modern Family.' They become part of who you are. You share their pains. You understand their fears. They make you laugh, and they change how you see the world.

I'm a guy who was born in Cincinnati and whose entire family except for my mother still lives in Cincinnati - my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, you name it.

When we were 15, my girlfriend Ruth Kaplan and I applied to the Universidad Ibero-Americana in Mexico City. We were accepted into a program that placed us with a lovely Mexican family. We lived with them for six weeks while studying Spanish poetry and Mexican anthropology.

Almost 24 million children - one in three - are likely growing up without their father involved in their lives.