I like performers who I know are for real. You can tell, man, there's an intensity about their stuff. You can tell right away they're real people, ya know?
Over the years I've evolved a lot as a performer.
Pittsburgh's definitely the city where I learned how to be on a stage, hold a microphone, and interact with an audience. It's where I got my chops as an entertainer and as a performer, so I'm grateful to the queer community there because they are active and vocal and they care about each other.
Music is at once the product of feeling and knowledge, for it requires from its disciples, composers and performers alike, not only talent and enthusiasm, but also that knowledge and perception which are the result of protracted study and reflection.
The improvisational nature of jazz musicianship is such that a truly competent performer must be prepared to function as an on-the-spot composer who is expected to contribute to the orchestration in progress, not simply to execute the score as it is written and rehearsed.
I have a bunch of storylines that I could pass to other performers or especially all my knowledge that I have when it comes to building matches, to creating an exciting finish or telling stories in the ring.
Wrestling is to go out there and perform and make people believe that either of the performers in the ring can win - either the bad guy or the good guy.
There are so many factors that go into how you feel, as a performer, on any given movie, that it's really hard to identify which things are the things that help you be good, and which are the things that hinder you.
I didn't start writing songs, honestly, until I started making my album. I was always doing poetry, but I never thought I could write songs. I discouraged myself and thought it was so hard. But starting this process and learning just what it is to be a songwriter and performer taught me that you don't have to feel discouraged about anything.
I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd ever be offered a record deal, and to get a Christmas No. 1 would be huge for any performer, let alone an ex-footballer.
