I became bitter, hard, cold. I was always on a panic - couldn't buy clothes or a good place to live.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it. I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing.

One time, when I was in my teens, jamming in a Kansas City club, I was doing all right until I tried doing double tempo on 'Body and Soul.' Everybody fell out laughing. I went home and cried and didn't want to play again for three months.

I already know what it's like to make life choices that are not the same as the majority.

Mothering has been the richest experience of my life, but I am still opposed to Mother's Day. It perpetuates the dangerous idea that all parents are somehow superior to non-parents.

Rap culture is interesting and different and has purpose but it has a non-romantic view of life and of social feelings. There may be a void in that.

My first bodybuilding competition was the 2003 NPC Northern Colorado, where I was a light-heavyweight weighing in at 192 lbs. I was very nervous, as it was my first real-life experience being a bodybuilder.