President Obama clearly cannot run on his record. All he's offering is more of the same. That's not good. Look at the economy. It's stagnating. And so what they're now going to try and do is bring this campaign down to little things distractions distortions smear fear anger frustration.

I listen to every thing all kinds of stuff. I've been obsessed with the Nas and Damian Marley record 'Distant Relatives.' I feel like a lot of people haven't heard it and it's amazing.

I'm jamming 'Black Sabbath Vol. 4' all the time. Zappa's 'Cruising With Ruben & The Jets.' A lot of Gong lately. Some Hawkwind. The Residents' 'Duck Stab' is amazing. Some Fugs. Lots of stuff man. I'm pretty schizophrenic with records.

I've always been fascinated with the juxtaposition of technology in music not only in recording but in the keyboard. It's amazing the way you can apply technology to an art form.

Actually we got signed in November of 2000 with Dreamworks which is the most amazing label. We have friends on other labels and though we are not selling millions of records yet they treat us with tons of respect and give us some very good guidance.

It's pretty amazing to me that my first hit record was an Elvis Presley record.

United Artists wanted to do records with me. I had no idea what a rare thing that was... to make an album. And they put a guy with me working on songs and I got busy with films. I just kind of let it slide. Isn't that amazing?

The real amazing thing about all of this is I think I've maintained the mentality of a musician throughout it all which I'm proudest of. And I'm still playing on people's records and singing on people's records.

I've created directed and choreographed for Lady Gaga since the beginning so 'Born This Way ' this was musically such an amazing evolution and such a brilliant record. So when she played it for me it took me a while to find out the visual interpretation that I could give back to her.

In 29 years I had recorded over 2 200 songs. I was amazed.

I'm fortunate that I've been in this business long enough that I've earned the right to be left alone by my record company.

I think we need one recognized respected public figure to make a tough blunt statement on just what Reagan's record is and what he might do to the country let alone the Republican Party before Christmas.

I love working with a cast and a group of people every day which is different than recording because you're usually pretty isolated and alone. They serve as a good balance for each other.

In my cranky old age I actually prefer recording alone now on 'The Simpsons ' for example because I find that the director can just focus on what I'm doing and I can do a lot of variations. A lot of times when I record with a group I'll stay after class for another hour or two.

I'm really lucky that my record companies have been patient with me and leave me alone and give me the time to make it right in my mind.

I wrote and produced millions and millions of selling records so my publishing company alone was worth millions of dollars. I didn't have to work anymore in life because when the rappers started sampling... I'm the most sampled artist in history.

The music industry is a strange combination of having real and intangible assets: pop bands are brand names in themselves and at a given stage in their careers their name alone can practically gaurantee hit records.

Another thing to do with the blues is how they were recorded. They were done on the quick and some of that stuff was made on wire not even tape let alone digital.

Observe record tabulate communicate. Use your five senses. Learn to see learn to hear learn to feel learn to smell and know that by practice alone you can become expert.