There are certain topics songwriters stay away from because it's hard to go there. I didn't sit down and go, 'I want to write something about my dad now.'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There's certain things as a songwriter that I don't really care to write about, and there are certain things I won't sing about anymore. There are just so many things that I probably thought was OK for me, or have been in the past, that I would never want my son to think was OK.
You can't write about stuff you don't know about. You have to live it. You have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Live life to be a good songwriter.
I usually don't write songs by people calling me and saying, 'Write a song about this.' Usually I'm just going with what I want to write, so you never know.
Strangely, some songs you really don't want to write.
Early in my songwriting career, when I was learning a lot about writing songs, I'd force myself to sit down until I came up with something.
Writing songs is really about writing. It's not about necessarily focusing on one particular style or making it one particular thing.
I tend to write songs that are about something pretty specific. A lot of them tell some kind of little made-up story.
When you research prolific songwriters, it is usually later in their career they write songs that they distance themselves from, or it's about other people.
I don't write about anything I don't want to write about. I like to think I could write about anything pretty much that I chose to. I have been asked to write songs about specific things, and I've always been able to come up with the goods.
I'm a writer, first and foremost, and I sort of take my cues from the songwriters of the '70s, who are talking about what's really important to them.