I am a boring loner. I enjoy Friday nights at home in my rocking chair with no arms, rocking and relaxing. It's not uncommon for Netflix to be involved. Records are a possibility, but most of it is spent in silence.
My music confuses people because they think I will sound a certain way because I look a certain way with the dreads.
I don't care if you're Muslim or Christian or Buddhist or whatever your religion is, when you listen to a spiritual song and you really open your heart, you can feel it. You can feel the message of it. Just a simple story.
I must stay true to myself and take my own path all the way.
When I was writing 'Shotgun,' it's one of the first songs that's come to me as an image.
I just let the songs tell me what to do - they are my guides, and they are the boss. So I am subservient to the songs, and I let them tell me what to do. I don't judge them; I just write whatever comes to me.
I paid my dues. I have crawled to gigs. I have served people coffee. I worked hard selling all these records out the back of my car. Girl, I'm ready to sell one the real way now.
When I was teenager, Britney Spears was it - that was the pop world that was happening, and I knew I wasn't in it.
I'm constantly being inspired by the old days and taking things from the past and allowing them to lift me up where I am now.
When I was really little, I loved Whitney Houston. I thought she was the prettiest thing in the world.
I don't marry bandmates just to go marrying bandmates.
Saturdays are set for antique shops. Williamsburg in Brooklyn has some good ones. I get in there and start meddling around with dusty boxes and rickety, worn-in stuff. I like it when I find something with someone else's name on it.
Amalgamation is a good word that I like to use - musically and in every way.
I grew my dreadlocks 12 years ago because they give me the freedom to roll out of bed and not spend hours on my woolly, thick hair. I get tons of dropped jaws and compliments, so I reckon folks like them all right.
I just love music, and I absorbed what I love.
When I first moved to New York, I was still returning to Tennessee every few months to perform.
I try to write down every song that comes to me, even though I know that every song that comes to me isn't a song that I need to sing.
I met PJ Harvey when I was in England, and the first thing I want to do when I meet a songwriter I admire is to ask them how do they receive songs.
As soon as I could talk, I was bellowing at the top of my lungs. My parents couldn't get over how weird I sounded - like an old man when I was just a toddler! But no one was gonna shut me up.
I was working like a dog as a housekeeper, barista, nanny, cook, so I could save enough money to really sit with my instruments. Whenever I had 20 minutes, I would practice a new chord or write a new verse.
