I needed an opportunity to get back in the studio and get my recording chops back together.

We got a little waylaid along the way. The whole problem started about 10 years ago with management and legal battles, then still trying to make albums while I was doing all of that.

I do think of 'The Idiot,' in a way, as a self-standing book about a certain struggle to make meaning, the struggle for a girl to find meaning outside of the romance plot.

I was totally into cartoon babes when I was a little dude. Cheetara from the 'Thundercats,' then Jessica Rabbit, and finally I moved onto a real-life human being and was into Punky Brewster, and then Christina Applegate on 'Married with Children.'

Now that we have a true leader who stands for family and has a loving relationship with his wife, maybe black men and women will follow their example. We have a lot of faith and trust in President Obama because his integrity thus far has shown us a new level of manhood, fatherhood and husbandhood.

A perfect hero is about as boring as a perfect marriage.