My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields but my father never hit me. Never. I don't ever remember a really cross unkind word from my father.

My dad and grandpa were in the army and as a country singer you're constantly playing at military bases all across the country and meeting soldiers and their families and hearing their stories.

He was a manager one of the singers I guess talent coordinator for the local talent in Harlem. His name was Lover Patterson. He was living right across the street from where my dad had his restaurant. I guess he saw a lot of kids come in a lot of my buddies.

When I was a boy I used to pull a big cross saw with my dad. He'd use his right hand so I'd have to use my left.

Now my dad is with me traveling with me and a big part of this whole thing is I like to mix it up a little bit you know. Who gets to take their father on a private jet across the country and stay in first class hotels? So we're enjoying it but I'd stop if it's not possible.

Therefore don't let sinners take courage to think they will be favoured like the thief on the cross for we see on the other side they may be like the hardened one and reproach death itself.

When you make that crossover from life to real life when you're not treated as a child anymore but as a man and you are no longer given the benefit of the doubt it takes some courage to face that.

In the old days a TV sync was perceived as not so cool or whittling away at your indie cred. Now it's seen as much more of an opportunity than a sellout as a way to find fans who wouldn't have ordinarily come across their genre of music.

Now that I finally have the time for it this web surfing stuff turns out to be as interesting and fun and addictive as you've all been telling me. Zipping from link to link chasing an idea across the noosphere sucking up information like a killer whale - way cool.

Even as a kid if I would come across something cool in the record store that would be how I found out about bands. It's kind of the same way these days. In a way even less because there are no record stores to go to anymore.

The simplest way to do something cool is the cross-turn. Like in the '80s - Michael Jackson did it. You jump and cross your legs together at the same time and then spin out of it. That's it.

You can't not look cool with a crossbow.

It's really hard for actors to cross over and get any respect as a singer and if I could just keep it separate and not use my music in movies it's cool.

Well it's a little harder in New York. It's not as forgiving to a film crew. You hold up a bunch of New Yorkers who can't cross the street they're not going to take it well. Southern California? They'll wait. It's cool man. In New York they're like 'Are you kidding me? I gotta get to work.'

I am surprised by how not-adopted the video reply has been. What keeps other people from doing it I think is that they think a video comes across as 'I'm cool look at how many e-mails I get.' That perception doesn't scare me because I know who I am.

The cool thing about being famous is traveling. I have always wanted to travel across seas like to Canada and stuff.

If you improve a teacher's self-esteem confidence communication skills or stress levels you improve that teacher's overall effectiveness across the curriculum.