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I prefer career artists that have spent time honing their craft, as opposed to, 'I won a karaoke contest on a reality show and now I have a record.' That's such a drag. The music that comes out of it is so poor.

Most artists, you know, you spend their entire lives learning how to play music and write songs, and they don't really know how the music business works.

You don't make any money being an artist. Writing and producing? You get your money from that. You live comfortable.

You always have to work to become a better singer, songwriter and performer.

A lot of people considered my career as an artist largely over. Two albums got shelved. But I've made music since I was a little kid, and for the majority of that time, I wasn't paid for it. So I will always be making it.

Sometimes you're trapped in writing songs and you don't have enough distance from what you do anymore and you need the talent and the years of other people to come and jump in.

Between the record companies being the way they are and the fact that people can just download one song instead of buying a whole album, it's hard to make a good living nowadays.

As an artist, you have to work really, really hard because you gotta make something that will allow people to even take the chance to even listen to it, you know?

For an individual, playback singing is not enough to sustain a career, and it is not really a main source of income.