When I was 11, I moved to Los Angeles to live with my father and stepmother and my half brothers. I became really close to my stepmother, and I am still very close to my brothers. My stepmother is the actress Shirley Jones, who was in 'The Partridge Family' alongside me, so we worked together for years.

Until I really dealt with a lot of the demons in my life - the fear and self-doubt and unresolved issues with my old man - I could never feel fulfilled and happy. I would wake up in the morning and feel bad.

I hitched up to Haight-Ashbury in the Summer of Love, you know? And I was very much politically aligned with that whole mentality, the whole ideology of that generation, the music, the culture, the behavior.

I didn't end up some sad, tragic guy singing in a lounge somewhere. I never went out and took big money for nostalgia and became like an oldies act.

The difference now is that the paparazzi get paid fortunes. That's what motivates people; it's about the money, sadly, at anyone's expense.

It's not that my father didn't love me, it's just that he wasn't capable of consistently being there. His mood swings were gigantic.

I've had a great metamorphosis in my life. I struggled for a number of years because I was identified with that image of the Seventies.

I'm not saying that I won't tour again, but the chances are slim because my priorities are different now.

I want to love. I want to enjoy life.

If you're not a daydreamer, you haven't got any imagination.

When you go through hell, your own personal hell, and you have lost - loss of fame, loss of money, loss of career, loss of family, loss of love, loss of your own identity that I experienced in my own life - and you've been able to face the demons that have haunted you... I appreciate everything that I have.

I'm an artist, so days don't start on any regular time.

Using something that is really painful, generally, as the percussive element for a beat, I think is cool.

I've always gravitated toward technical music in general. I love jazz fusion.

I've always been very supported. I've never really been sad. I've just been broke. They are very different things.

All the way on the West Coast, never having seen a Broadway show, it was like, 'They don't want me. There's nothing there for me.' I'd come to New York a lot and never even tried to see a Broadway show. There was no reason for me to do that.

I didn't know a single musical soundtrack, really, growing up. Nobody listened to musicals. That wasn't a thing I did.

I get to say 'no' to a lot of things. That, for an artist, is crazy.

Hip-hop was indifferent to Broadway. We didn't need Broadway, but I think Broadway needed hip-hop.

I call myself a nerd all the time.

I miss doing a straight play.

That's what hip-hop is - it's about meeting the music where you are, and then you add on top of that. It's about coming at it with your full self.

There's this thing about authenticity when you rap, right? Whether or not it's real, it has to feel real.

The way we make history exciting to learn about is by breaking down the barriers that are already set up between these people.