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Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra - besides singing in the college chorus and things like that.

I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad's Benny Goodman records.

I learned everything by ear and played all the different instruments. So then I was able to find a guitar. That was, like, in the seventh grade. And then I didn't know how to put my fingers on all the different strings, so I had to figure out how to do it upside down and backwards, and I still play that way today.

When I was in school, you could pick any instrument you want, and they'd teach you how to play it. That changed my life. I loved playing music in school, and it sent me on my path as a musician.

There was a period when I'd just come out of college where I'd been playing classical guitar and I suddenly realised that it wasn't what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

I played saxophone and trumpet. Pretty nerdy.

I went to Juilliard as a clarinet major, and somewhere between the beginning and the end, I stopped playing it. I asked myself who was I reaching... I just fell out of love with it.

I grew up playing classical piano and percussion.

My grandfather played a mandolin, so I got my hands on that. Then on down to a banjo, and I found I couldn't play any kind of soft or mournful music with that so I took up the fiddle in my late 20s or early 30s - and that was far too late. But it keeps me off the streets. It has been a love of mine since I was 17 maybe.

In high school, I got into folk music, and I taught myself guitar. And when The Beatles came out, I got an electric guitar.