You can't get tied into your past. It's not fun for me. You can't just keep doing the same material forever. Some people just play the hits, and it's the same show every night. They're happy to do that. I personally am not.
I get bored quickly. I kind of take my hat off to bands who have been around for a long time and still do the same thing, because it's hard to keep a band together for decades. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't play the same songs night after night or just trade on my past glories, because it wouldn't interest me as a person.
For me, I'm just trying to keep it fun, keep it interesting, not get stuck on the same sound, the same wave for too long.
I look at the NFL and see how the transition has gone at quarterback. I might be coming along at a good time. For me personally, this is about doing the same thing I've been doing at USF - just smile, have fun, enjoy the experience, keep a positive attitude and encourage my teammates. I like to feed off the people around me.
Every season is so much different and you go through your ups and downs, you figure your team out, you get to play against great teams. Some of the best competition there's been since I've been in the league. Just every night, night in and night out we get to play against the top guys, the top teams. It's a lot of fun.
Playing live is about going for it .. it's about bringing it ... you should see a bunch of people trying out stuff, actually performing, instead of learning the record and recreating it note for note. I can't play the show the same way every night .. I really need to be in a creative environment, every night or I'll go nuts ... my manager accuses me of singing just long enough to get me to my next guitar solo - which is true.
I'm not going out there and doing the same material every night. I have this amazing audience of fans who have been listening to me, some of them since 1975.
With action movies, that's just fun stuff for me. That's me being a kid again. Same with 'The Best of Me' and these romantic dramas. It's such a freedom from reality and social constructions. You get to just have fun and play and be in a movie.
Just the desire to play a mom, wanting to play someone actually closer to who I am and where I am in my life. People are used to seeing me play the single, hot girl, which has been fun, but at the same time, this role is more akin to my natural proclivities.
The truth is, most celebrities are doing the same things most other people are doing every day... work, have dinner, hang out with your friends when you can, try and keep up with the crazy world we're living in and squeeze in some zzz's. There's not nearly as much stealing and obsessing and middle-of-the-night secret calls to ex-boyfriends and scheming and cheating [as they lead you to believe]. Most of it's just bulls - t, however entertaining.
It's very difficult for me to travel now without music just because I'm so spoiled. It's a huge luxury to go and play your music for all these people around the world and having come up to you in a special way - they really want to show your their city, or really want to show you where they are from. If you are just traveling, you don't get that same welcome.
I want to work on projects that I feel passionate about and do things that are fun and challenging. I would love to do a live musical. I'm not interested in doing the same thing over and over or the fame and exposure that comes with it. When people keep doing that, they just end up doing the same dumb stuff again and again.
For me specifically, I think college benefited me. Just getting me out of doing, getting me out of what I was doing before. I was just doing the same thing, you know, every day, same schedule, just practicing, training, things like that.
When you go to Africa and you see people who are just like you and me - this is always my starting point. These are people who are just like you and me. The same synapses, same things are firing off in their heads, same dreams for their children, same hopes and aspirations that we all have. What can one do to reduce the possibility that their chances of a happy and healthy and prosperous life are not solely determined by the accident of where they were born?
For the past several years, I have gone to sleep every night in this same little pocket, the most uneventful piece of time I could find. Same exact thing every night, night after night. Total silence. Absolutely nothing. That's why I chose it. I know for a fact nothing bad can happen to me in here.
If your opponent is short (on time), play just as you played earlier in the game. If you are short keep calm, I repeat, don't get flustered. Keep up the same neat writing of the moves, the same methodical examination of variations, but at a quicker rate.
I just try to do as good job with the material as I can and play some jazz as well, some improvised music, and do that every night. Just see where it goes.