When I was 10, I had a paper route. One year, I delivered my papers through a hurricane. My mother was against the idea, but my dad, who was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, overruled her. I was determined to deliver my papers.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I was as little as four years old, my mom would give me a pen and paper and tell me to write a story to keep me busy.
I was working probably at the age of 10, when I had my first paper route. I had every different kind of job you could possibly imagine as a young kid.
My first job, 9 years old, part-time, was selling Christmas cards door-to-door. Ten years old, my brother and I had paper routes. We delivered a morning paper called the 'L.A. Examiner.' Get up at 4 o'clock, fold your papers, deliver them and get ready for school.
My dad's a journalist, and he travelled a lot when I was young. There is no way my mother could have done that.
My mother did all she could to control me, but at age 14 she sent me to a military school.
I was too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security and too tired for an affair.
When my mother died, I fell apart. My father wanted to control me. As a consequence, I ran away to America.
My father left school at 14, my mother at 13. My father was clever and well-read. He took a newspaper, always watched the news, discussed it all the time.
When I was 13, I told my dad I needed to record myself because I sounded awesome, even though I didn't. By 18, I was a lot better. Then I got a publishing deal, so I was writing songs for other people professionally.
When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out.