I was incredibly different as a child from everybody else. But really, I was just who I was. I was born that way.

One thing about hanging out with a bunch of clean drug addicts, everyone is just super similar to you. So that has been awesome. I've made a lot of friends who are coming from an extremely similar place, even if they seem externally very different. I know I am an outsider in a number of ways, but I don't feel weird.

My own experience with that brief moment where I had videos on MTV was that nothing was ever good enough. When you hear people say, I was unhappy the whole time, that sounds ridiculous. I think this is a theme among people who seek fame, not just musicians. There are a lot of bitter, disappointed people.

It's tragic that extremists co-opt the notion of God, and that hipsters and artists reject spirituality out of hand. I don't have a fixed idea of God. But I feel that it's us - the messed-up, the half-crazy, the burning, the questing - that need God, a lot more than the goody-two-shoes do.

ELIXIR Strings are bright and so sturdy. I'm absolutely in love with them.