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It's a real wrenching thing to go from being a private person to being a public person, especially when you're being autobiographical. But it's what everyone wants - to get everyone's attention, to have your music make a living for you, to be validated in that way.

We're all private people, but as a musician, I think that once you get to the point where there's more of your life behind you than in front of you, you owe it to your public to explain yourself.

At times I make music, but in private.

I am a public person and I have my private life. It's important for me that my private life stay private, that what I share with the people is my public personality.

I didn't want the public in my personal life at all - I thought that people might perceive me as too normal, and I'd lose that larger-than-life rock star persona. You've got to protect that!

I honestly in a lot of ways don't want to sing about my real life, because that's private.

Even though music is something I travel around doing, it is also a very private thing. A sort of escapism.

I'm just not a private person. It's not like I do things because I want things to be public; it's just that's my way of expressing myself, and I happen to be very famous.

For me, that's always been one of the great charms of the first person: we gain access to a very personal, private kind of music.

I don't think shoving my butt into people's faces will tell them anything about who I am. How is that connecting to your audience? What is that doing for your music?