Everything starts and ends with the song, and working with writers and really learning their process and craft was an invaluable experience.

You need to know what makes artists tick. Having been through the process myself as a musician, since I was an early teen, gave me an advantage - understanding them from their point of view, because it's about them, it's not about you - it's their vision and what they're capable of achieving, and you're the conduit.

It's really only all about music. It's not like a big rocket scientist kind of philosophy or anything.

When I'm hiring someone I look for magic and a spark. Little things that intuitively give me a gut feeling that this person will go to the ends of the earth to accomplish the task at hand.

For me it was just about staying the course, staying true to who I believe that I am, being open, being honest, being transparent with the players, being firm with the players but at the same time listening to the players.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

We're able to blend and rock any crowd. If you put us on a tour with Garth Brooks, we'll take his crowd too.

I've never kept my mouth shut, especially as my industry is so misogynistic. I've got a reputation as a troublemaker.