The music for me is paradise. I think it's where God lives.

And I just pray that god gives me longevity in the music industry.

God tells me how the music should sound, but you stand in the way.

For me, music is God and each song I make is an offering at the temple of music.

God told me, 'I gave you the music, Al. Sing the music I gave you - all the music.' So I did.

There are many similarities between Sai Baba and me. He believed there is only one God, and so do I. He loved Sufi music; so do I.

God did not want me to be a blind beggar on the street, alone and bitter. He gave me music, first to be my companion and then to be my salvation.

I feel like before I came to the planet I asked God for the gift of music. I didn't want to come here without the gift of music and God granted it to me.

We groove off of everything, any sort of live show. The inner dialogue you're having with yourself, between you and the music, is for me the search for God.

Even as I was trying to become a rock god, Michael Jackson was the ultimate magic rock star to me. I loved his music, his scene and style. He transcended musical categories.

I have so much music inside me I'm just trying to stay afloat. I don't tend to write for a particular band - you have to just write the songs and then let God into the room and let the music tell you what to do.

My goal was to play drums, but my father made me take piano lessons. He told me I needed to learn to read music first, so I took lessons for six years. I thank God that he made me take those lessons, because it taught me a tremendous amount.

Even if I was playing the keyboard in an orchestra, or a radio jockey playing music at an FM station, I would have been the happiest person. So, for me, all this... being a music composer and getting appreciated for my craft... it is a bonus. It is God's gift.

I play trumpet. And I took all the music courses in college, so I can also play the string instruments, keyboard, the brass and woodwinds - but only well enough to teach them. If you put a violin in front of me, you wouldn't say, 'My God, that guy can play.' It'd probably sound more like Jack Benny.

When I was a youngster, I wrote all this music - it just came out of me - and I think record executives were like, 'Oh, wow, he's a genius, let's give him a million dollars!' But the minute I started producing the records, they'd be like, 'Oh, my God, you're terrible! You're all over the place! We can't market this!'

The acting part of me is not me. The music side is who I really am and what I want to talk about. It'll be hard for people to differentiate those different sides but I think it's possible. Once the music is out there, people will start to realize how serious I am about it rather than, 'Oh god, another actress making an album.'

When I was a kid, and God was talking to me about music, I was like, 'Okay, I'll sing mainstream music,' because I was afraid to sing Christian music to alienate my friends. Honestly, it was going on 'Idol,' having that kind of exposure, that I realized there's something different about me. I just crave God being a part of every moment.

Music to me was never something that I could listen to while reading a book. Especially when I was studying music, if I was going to listen to music, I was going to put on the headphones or crank the stereo, and by God, I was going to sit there and just listen to music. I wasn't going to talk on the phone and multitask, which I can't do anyway.

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