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I was trained to be very tough. My mom told me I shouldn't cry; I shouldn't be afraid of anything.

When my mum first told me she got sick, I didn't cry. I probably cried over my mum's illness twice.

Growing up, I saw my mother cry exactly once. The morning of her brother's funeral. One long tear ran down her cheek through her make up until she caught it near her mouth and patted it dry with a tissue she pulled from inside her sleeve.

I was a mother's boy.

I didn't start grieving for my mother properly until I was maybe 16.

I don't really remember, but I'm positive that whenever I cried, my mother gave me something to eat. I'm sure that whenever I had a fight with the little girl next door, or it was raining and I couldn't go out, or I wasn't invited to a birthday party, my mother gave me a piece of candy to make me feel better.

When my father died, I did not cry. When my cat died three days later, I cried a lot.

I lost my mother when I was 7 and they put her in a mental hospital. My brother and I watched her being taken away in a strait jacket. That's something you never forget. And my stepmother was like in the movie 'Precious.' I couldn't handle it. So I said to myself, 'I don't have a mother. I don't need one. I'm going to let music be my mother.'

During my grief, I realised there was nothing I could do for my mother, but I did have a child.