Words

“What’s on the other side of fear? Nothing.” —Jamie Foxx Well, it was a long time coming, but it’s here. CDs will be off the shelves in Best Buy this summer, and iTunes plans to stop selling downloads sometime next year. (Downloads fell another 27 percent in sales in the first half of this year alone.) Streaming runs the record … Read More

I lost my way. I’d thought by my labors to stand outside that true bend of gravity which is the world’s pain. The beauty of the stonework is simply a reflection of the purity of the mason’s intention.” —Cormac McCarthy, The Stonemason When I was 12 years old, my parents split, and I moved with my mom and sister from … Read More

As a kid growing up in Kansas, I ate roughly one million gazillion Burger King Whoppers. Sometimes Double Whoppers. Until I became vegetarian as a freshman in college, I ate a ton of antibiotic-filled animals and cleared acres of rainforest with my insane eating habits. My relationship with food was wonderfully simple—eat till I can barely move, drink enough coffee … Read More

Mr. Rogers, we need you now more than ever. I watched the film Won’t You Be My Neighbor earlier this week, and it has stuck with me in a way few films ever have. In several places in the film I found myself on the verge of tears—and by the end, the entire theater left crying. The depth and consistency … Read More

(Things I have borrowed, begged, andstolen from books, movies, conversations, etc.)   The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care. —Hugh McCleod Always comes back to the same necessity—you go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth. —May Sarton Three things in … Read More

The average day on this spring tour has worked like this: Drive to Somewhere, USA, and find the motel. If you are lucky, get into bed early enough to get a few hours’ sleep before getting up at five a.m. to drive a little more and load into a high school. Play. Speak. Take questions (be blown away by the … Read More

“The thing with Prince is, he plays his second instruments better than you play your first.” —Jimmy Jam Pushing boundaries, giving your LIFE to your art, writing hits, combining genres, and putting on a MIND-BLOWING LIVE SHOW, no one got near THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS. One of my very first records was Prince’s 1999. I had the cassette as … Read More

Though my day job is rock ’n’ roll (touring/songwriting/recording), I get to speak to 80 to 100 high schools a year about what I believe to be something very “rock ’n’ roll”—giving people a fair shot. Giving students a level playing field and helping them gain the freedom in their lives to use their talents, build something sustainable, and pull … Read More

“Pack a small suitcase and a smaller ego.” —Willie Nelson So much of life is what to include and what to leave out. What to focus on and what to ignore. The space and light that comes to us once we defend our preferences is amazing. To the degree that at some level we might even be afraid of it. … Read More

Do you write down your phone messages in five different places? Do you feel like you need to check five social media sites to make sure you don’t miss something important that might lead to business? Do you say YES to everything that comes your way? This is chaos. There was a time where I would make calls lists on … Read More