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When I was in meditation, God began to speak to me, and God said, 'Roland, I have enough preachers. I need people where you are in your positions. When you are on radio, when you are on television, you speak into more people in the five minutes than some preachers speak to in an entire year.'

I was raised Presbyterian, but I'm not really going to church. I think the experience in meditation is pretty much where it's at for me.

When I'm sitting in the church alone, I can hear singing of the old people. I can hear their singing and I can hear their praying, and sometimes I hum one of their songs.

I don't meditate in any formal way, but I often lie in bed or find myself in nature and enter into that state of quiet where I get images, feelings, or melodies.

For me, when I grew up playing music, I played music in church and people were shouting and having a big time, and church wasn't something where it was subdued. If you played something, you brought it to church with you.

If I'm going to meditate, there is a little church up in Montecito, California. It's an old Spanish mission, actually. I find it comforting in there.

Growing up, I was vaguely aware of things that went on in church, because I was in the boys' choir at the local Episcopal church. But I got the clear message that I was supposed to learn music there, and not pay too much attention to the rest of it, and I followed those instructions very carefully.

I don't meditate before I play or compose, but I see playing and composing as meditative acts.

Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when you're listening. Playing the piano allows you to do both at the same time.

Singing is a form of meditation... apparently the only one that I have command over.