Good music is good music, and everything else can go to hell.

Country music is important to me, and I love it, but it's not my whole life.

What I took back, because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father, was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh.

So I wanted to sing inspirational music, and that's exactly how I approached it - only the words have been changed to declare my relationship with God.

The problem for me, still today, is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. I'm not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage.