You know when I really realized like 'wow' what a gift this is was when I sang at camp and a girl wrote me a letter and said the song that I sung kept her from committing suicide.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
That's a big gift when people say to you that a song helped them or brought them to some place in their life where they needed to be.
I just think it's a blessing that I was able to have the gift of words and to be able to put them into music. I was given a great gift all the way around. I didn't ever have to really go out and look for songs, you know.
I always try to give my songs as gifts.
I think the greatest gift to me is that I can express myself in songs. It helps me get through some of the hardest times of my life. It also helps me celebrate some of the best times.
In some ways, my gift for music and writing was born out of tragedy, really, and loss.
I had - after I sang the 'Star Spangled Banner' so badly, after my tragic singing accident, after that, you know, all my stuff kind of, like, really got even more full blown and, you know, I got stage fright and, you know, I couldn't do stand-up anymore and let alone sing and all the other things.
When I realized I could write lyrics and let someone that I knew listen to them, but not know that the song was about them - say it was a girl. I could write this song about how I feel about this girl, I could play it to them. I just loved it, because all of the words would speak to them. I could see them slowly falling in love with me.
I always tell people I'm grateful for my cancer diagnosis because it was the greatest gift because it completely changed my life. I was able to stop and let my whole life and world just crash over me like a wave. And I stood there and went, 'Wow.' And for the first time, I stopped everything. I had to.
The most astonishing joy is to receive from the muses the gift of a whole lyric.
I learned at an early age that I was given something special when I was born, and that was the gift of music.