Amazingly, I've been sort of an anomaly in the music industry. I feel like I've been able to exist as kind of a throwback artist.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
One of the biggest obstacles I've overcome in my life was thinking I didn't deserve to be successful. Artistically I'm not as much of a heavyweight as someone like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell, because I'm not a creator of original music, and I worried about that for years.
I had no idea that I could sustain a career as an artist. But, I loved music and wanted to be in the music business.
People need to put my music in a perspective where they use other established artists from the past, and almost all the names I see related to my music are great musicians.
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.
I always saw myself as a singer-songwriter, a solo-artist, that's why working with other artists was never satisfying for me.
When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.
I've been working in the music industry since I was 15 years old, and I feel like I've always been ahead of my time.
Before I was through my teens, I had been introduced and exposed to artists who would, in later years, become legendary.
I consider myself very lucky indeed to have had the career I have. I listen to the radio now and you can't tell artists apart.
Everything about the music industry takes away from you as an artist. They're always wondering what the next thing is: 'What do you have?' It's a very introverted process.