It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It's who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.

That there's no more important decision in life than who you marry.

No one dislikes LL Cool J. If you meet LL Cool J, you fall in love with LL Cool J. LL and I had mutual friends, and he and I had always talked about doing something. My fans know LL's music. And I love him - we're blood brothers at this point. We've been through the fire together. I know no finer person.

The artists who stick around for a while are the ones who go, 'Oh, that's cool, never thought of that. Ought to do that.'

I have a very down-to-earth father. My wife is an actress and famous herself is more down-to-earth than anyone I know.

By no means do I try to go out and hang out with famous people.

I'm somebody who likes to gravitate toward people who aren't necessarily famous.

When I got married, I hired a great choir - the St. James Choir, an all-black gospel choir - to sing at my wedding.

There may be people in my audience who may not agree with me on some particular issue - you know, say, as a gun owner, they may not agree with me, or, you know, someone may not agree with me on a gay marriage topic. Any of those things. But those shouldn't be the reasons you listen to my music.

When you're old-fashioned like I am, you know marriage is forever. Those vows are a promise.

I like to look at the songs like they're little movies.

I jetset around and play these songs and get to hang with some pretty amazing people, then I go home to a really great farm, though actually it's a disaster area of a farm at the moment. But it's certainly a blast. I wouldn't trade lives with anyone right now.

I defuse everything I can with it. Humor is such a great shield.