The most challenging part of being a dad is self-restraint. So often your instinct is to teach and tell. I am constantly reminding myself to listen to them.

I actually study boxing - my dad was a Golden Gloves champion so I learned how to fight at a very young age. Growing up in Brooklyn you always had to watch your back so I pretty much learned to protect myself.

I had always loved music. I grew up listening to classic country Waylon Jennings Merle Haggard. My dad loved Vern Gosdin and Keith Whitley. So I kept going to class and started getting totally into playing guitar and teaching myself these songs.

I used to be really nervous when I sang. Like when I was a kid starting young 18 and 19 and my dad really had to sort of push me to start singing in front of people. Ever since I got out there and really started doing it the only thing I've ever tried to do is just sort of is be myself you know never put on a voice. Sing naturally.

I was just a kid and I didn't have a dad. That's hard because when you're a kid you blame yourself for everything. And I blamed myself for him not being around for my parents not being together.

I knew that I needed to do something that I desperately loved. There was a period where I did question if it was acting because I knew that I would be making things hard on myself. I knew that there was going to be a little bit of a hullabaloo because of my dad being who he is and all that.

I found myself very lost after 'The Partridge Family ' and I lost my dad and I lost my manager and I lived in a bubble and it took me 15 years to get through that and a lot of psychotherapy and I'm laughing about it now!

At 18 I guarded the parking lot at the Catholic church bingos. Now my dad made sure I could take care of myself. I carried a Smith and Wesson 357 magnum.

I'm looking out for myself but I'm looking out for my dad too.

I just went off for two months traveling around Europe on a motorcycle and pretty much turned my phone off. I did 5 000 miles with my dad. We went through Holland Germany Austria Slovenia Croatia Bosnia Montenegro Italy... and then I did Spain and France by myself.

I wanted to make a point of basing myself at home being close to my family. I'll never be able to repay Mum and Dad for what they did but at least they know they'll never have to work another day. I'll do whatever it takes to look after them.

I want to be a young dad. By 25 or 26 I want to see myself like married or start looking for a family.

I wanted to take up music so my father bought me a blunt instrument. He told me to knock myself out.

It was my father who taught me to value myself. He told me that I was uncommonly beautiful and that I was the most precious thing in his life.

Unjust. How many times I've used that word scolded myself with it. All I mean by it now is that I don't have the final courage to say that I refuse to preside over violations against myself and to hell with justice.

There's only one requirement of any of us and that is to be courageous. Because courage as you might know defines all other human behavior. And I believe - because I've done a little of this myself - pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing.

I'm grateful to God for His bountiful gifts... He gave me courage and faith in myself.

I never had a cool older brother or sister to turn me on to cool music. I had to discover it for myself.

I was raised to believe in myself. I know I'm cool. I'm not trying to brag or say I'm the man or anything like that. I don't lie or cheat and I'm not mean to anybody. I treat people with respect.

The cool wind blew in my face and all at once I felt as if I had shed dullness from myself. Before me lay a long gray line with a black mark down the center. The birds were singing. It was spring.

I wouldn't compare myself to any past Idol contestant because I don't feel like I am like any of them. Maybe stories are cool but my story is different from most people's story. I don't like to compare myself to other people I like to just be me.

That wasn't the way that things was supposed to be. And all because the so-called culture that I thought was right that I thought it was cool and I thought it was fun and it was exciting at the time. It all led to me laying in a prison bunk by myself with no one to talk to but myself.

I love people and I love to be with people and to make music with people but my natural state is to revert back to being by myself in my house which is cool because that's where I practice and write and listen and study.

I'm so critical of myself. I'm actually really really proud of the film. It's really cool to see a movie at Sundance because everybody is so supportive.