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Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.

I wrote 'The River' practically trying to rip off every lick that James Taylor had, so it was neat to hear him sing those lyrics because that's who inspired you to write them.

I know my roots and I cannot forget the journey I made.

I went down to my keyboard and was playing random chords, and the one line I kept repeating was, 'I'm a lost boy from Neverland.' I decided to post it to Vine, and it got the biggest reaction I'd ever gotten. People wanted to hear more, and I had to explain it wasn't a song.

With Fountains Of Wayne, I almost always start with lyrics - maybe not the entire lyric, but I almost always need a couplet or something, and then I work from there. With Ivy, it's much more about the atmosphere and the vibe.

My daughter, who is 7 years old - I have no idea where she learned this - she made a video where she's beat-boxing. We have no idea where the beat-boxing came from, but all of a sudden, there it was. Now we're launched into lyric sheets for every single song that is current. They're all over our house.

The roots of my music start from the ghetto.

The first song I ever wrote was when I was 12, and it had, like, four lines in it. You progress and get better.

I remember working with Ray Charles when I was quite young, and I would wonder, 'Why would he sing 'Georgia On My Mind' and 'I Can't Stop Loving You' every night?' I said, 'Oh my God if I have to sing these songs, if I have to sing 'I Can't Stop Loving You' one more night, I'm going to fall out.' Of course, I was young and I didn't understand.