Pastoral Resources

When I auditioned for my high school band the band director was excited because my father was known to be a great musician. When he heard me, he said 'Are you sure you're Ellis's son?'

I keep a lighter in my back pocket all the time. I'm not a smoker, I just really like certain songs.

I love when people get songs wrong. I love when people take something from a song that's totally not what I intended!

But I'm just having fun playing and giving Botox injections to the older songs.

I don't think I've ever laid out a batch of songs that pick myself apart the way that these do.

I didn't want my last chapter to be the guy who sits at the piano and sings love songs.

I can't wait to front my band with these new songs and play for fans, but I've decided to keep my day job too.

People take songs so literally.

It's funny; Luther and I have written many songs together, but we've never written songs in the same room.

So it was just a case of getting a bunch of songs that I had been writing for years but hadn't recorded together, and the result was My Own Best Enemy.

I've never written a song that I thought was a hit.

As a songwriter, there's nothing better than winning Song Of The Year. But I couldn't really celebrate, because it wasn't right. Luther wasn't standing next to me, to receive the award.

The only thing that's a little tricky about it is sometimes people assume that if it's a new song, it's a reflection of what you're feeling or going through now.

In the fall of 1943 we brought home our second son, whom we named Alexander.

Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.

My songs always speak of love, that's the way I like them.

I've come to understand my role. On some level, I provide the context for them to shine. I also know my role is the steward of the songs, and the center point, the artist that the stuff all revolves around. But I really try to honor that.

You have to pack as much as you can in an hour or 70 minutes. This time around it was 15 songs, so it was a challenge to get them all the right length so you could get them all on.

I always make it a point to pick songs on which players really shine.

I write songs about real things... The subject dictates the mood and it goes from there, really.