I took a trip in 2004, a year after the war started in Iraq. I played music on the streets of Baghdad for Iraqi civilians. I'd also play for U.S. soldiers at night when they were off duty in the bars. Then I would talk to people, and I would film them and ask them about their life and the conflict.

I don't know if it's so grand that I can change the entire world, but I know that I can help one person. So that's the goal.

I went to Iraq because I wanted to see what one year of occupation had done to Iraqi society, and I went to the West Bank and Gaza Strip because I wanted to see what three generations of occupation had done to Palestinian society. I found a lot more hopelessness and despair in Palestine.

My greatest sense of accomplishment has come from having two amazing sons, but it's also a paradox in that the times when I felt like the biggest failure have been times when I felt like, as a parent, I wasn't making the right decisions or succeeding in the way that I should.

My family is still very Southern Baptist, and they're religious.

My mother and father didn't know anything about instruments. Me just see a man in the country play guitar one time and say, 'My, the man play that guitar nice.'

As a black millennial, I remember with horrid detail how Democratic policies ravaged my community and destroyed my family.

Stay out of the sun, because it is the worst thing in terms of aging. I'm very medical. I come from a medical family.