I grew up in a really small town with not a lot of money and I liked singing but it was just something that was a hobby.

I like to sing ballads the way Eddie Fisher does and the way Perry Como does. But the way I'm singing now is what makes the money.

I probably wouldn't be singing if not for Michael Jackson. When I started singing I didn't like my tone until my mom put me on to Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder so listening to the way they used their instrument helped me get more comfortable with my own.

My mom's a concert pianist so she started teaching me when I was around seven. When I was eight I started writing my own songs and kinda started putting piano and singing together. But I'm trained classically which is a big influence on me I think.

We didn't have movies in this little mining town. When I was 12 my mom took me to New York and I saw Bye Bye Birdie with people singing and dancing and that was it.

I didn't understand that I could sing until I was like 11 or 12. My mom heard me singing around the house and she said What are you doing? You really can sing! So then I started going to school and singing to the girls.

Writing and singing does give me some kind of release from the demons of my past it is a therapy of sorts but to be honest my marriage played a more important role in the acceptance of myself than performance has ever done.

I listen to the people. That was a big reason for my life maybe the main reason I'm singing because I love it when people say to me 'Thank you.' I thank them. It's a marriage.

You don't have to be singing about love all the time in order to give love to the people. You don't have to keep flashing those words all the time.

The fact is that the learning process goes on and so long as the voices are not stilled and the singers go on singing some of it gets through.

I hope that what it comes down to at the end of the day is that people believe that I believe what I'm singing. It comes down to being believable. You don't have to be likeable generally though I think I am.

I doubt I'll be singing forever because at some point people aren't going to want to hear my music and I hope that I'll still get the opportunity to write songs.

Oh stuff the critics. I don't care. Too many people are snooty about classical. Look I wasn't brought up in a home where we listened to classical music. It was a singing teacher that thought it would be best for my voice. Then I moved into crossover. And if that makes the music accessible to more people then great.

Singing really oxygenates your blood. You stretch your lungs and take in much more air into them than before. It's really good for your health.

90% 100% are going there to hear the singing. The story is another thing. Nobody's interested in the story. Happiness is happiness.

When you sing with a group of people you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings - to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy the great social virtue.

Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh how beautiful ' and sitting in the shade.