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Music was a big outlet for me. Being able to play an instrument and sing was definitely a good way for me to escape things I was dealing with: family issues, growing up, being a kid and not knowing what I wanted to do with my life.

Growing up, music was an important part of my childhood. I see it being just as important in my children and all children's growth and development, and in a parent's connection with their children.

Music is a vital part of my life, and it has been since I was a kid. It helped me find my identity as a person, it helped me find my identity as an artist, and it helped me get in touch with emotions that I didn't know I had.

Music - which I could never listen to while writing before I had children - became essential to my process.

When I was a teenager, I began to settle into school because I'd discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater.

I always loved the way music made me feel. I did sports at school and all, but when I got home, it was just music. Everybody in my neighborhood loved music. I could jump the back fence and be in the park where there were ghetto blasters everywhere.

A big part of my life is music education because it changed my life - but arts, academics and athletics should all be equally treated in the school.

I encourage the study of music. And the immersion. 'Cause my life has been so enriched by being involved in music as I have.

Music gave me something that was not only good for me - it gave me something to work on, something to be proud of and something that I really loved and have a love for - but also music was good for other people because you put joy into the world.

When I was younger, acting, singing and dancing was what it was all about. That's really what kept me in school because I was really naughty otherwise.