You need to be growing and getting better, and in L.A., it's so hard to get bookings. You literally have to pay clubs to book you. It's pay to play, and then you only get 30 minutes. That's no way to get good.

I grew up a huge jock, a lot of basketball and football. We had a pond in my back yard growing up, and we played a lot of hockey, too. I loved to score goals.

I know that sounds almost horribly cheesy, but that is what has to happen if you're gonna make a relationship work for a long time: You have to keep learning new things that are interesting about this person or having them catch you off guard and have these little moments of intense appreciation.

Once you see the impact that you have on people, either at a meet and greet or after a show, you think, 'Oh man, they need to feel better today.'

So many times, football is really unfair.

I feel lucky. I feel blessed. If you get blessed with some ability, I think you have to work hard at it. Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, but he wasn't the best shooter, even though he had the skill, and he had to work and work at it.

Until the age of thirteen, I tortured the waiting worlds of book illustration and professional football by shilly-shallying over which of them was going to get the benefit of my inestimable talents.

When I come onto the pitch, that's when I'm able to get into that zone and forget about everything else other than just doing my job. But even then, it's not a job. It's playing football, and that's something I love.