When people are running up to me in the grocery store screaming, 'Oh my God! Oh my God!' that's when I know I'm swervin'. As long as people are recognizing you and you matter to them, then you're doing something right.
It was very important for me to touch on things that haven't changed, like schools. I'm in Cleveland, Ohio. My lady's from Ohio, and the schools are being torn down, and they turned them into high-rise condos.
I do want to sell as many records and win as many awards as I can. The awards though, they don't necessarily determine if you're good or not. I know that now.
I think it's a great time to put out quality work, and it will speak for itself. You don't have to work so hard at being successful at it, because it is something that people want, so when they want it and it is good, then they're going to get it and continue to give it to other people.
I enjoy touring. I enjoy recording the music, I enjoy dreaming it and I enjoy performing it. I also definitely enjoy selling it, because I like to eat.
After a while, you want to sell a lot of records, win awards and touch as many people as you can, but you have to secure the foundation with your family. I'm a family man, but I'm a businessman, too.
Most songs I write are spur-of-the-moment-type things. I have to be spontaneous. If not, songwriting can bore me. There is no pre-design or idea of what I am going to do when I go into the studio. It's all like that for me. I could go in and write two or three songs in an eight-hour session. You can't over-think songs. You just can't.
I wanna change the game in way where I'm not knocking nobody out of the way, not claiming to be the best at this or that, but just doing wonders with the gift I've been given.
'Back To Love' is a way of letting people know that sometimes you get caught up in trying to be successful in school or in your social life, and it's a reminder not to forget that each day people are getting older. Nobody is promised tomorrow, so we should make sure that we spend quality time with quality people.