That's why I like to read a lot. That's why I try to keep up on current events, what's going on in the world with the elections and the politicians and business people, because I feel like it's my duty to spread that. I feel like it's my duty to speak on that even if I'm never asked, because I'm representing the people. I don't want to be in a position where I have no knowledge.
The reason I speak out is because it's necessary. I feel like it's my responsibility. I feel like it's what I'm put here to do. Even on a simpler level, I feel like why can't we speak on what we feel is right or what's wrong? What's wrong with that?
The notion that I do my work here, now, like this, even when I do not feel like it, and especially when I do not feel like it, is very important. Because lots and lots of people are creative when they feel like it, but you are only going to become a professional if you do it when you don't feel like it. And that emotional waiver is why this is your work and not your hobby.
People always slow down for a train wreck. It's like junk food. If you don't feel good about yourself, you want to read crap about other people, like gossip in high school. You don't understand why it's there, but somehow it makes a lot of people feel better.
I've experienced racism and run-ins with the law, and it's a real thing, and it happens where I grew up. It's something that not a lot of people want to talk about. I feel like I have a duty, and I wouldn't be honest or true to myself if I didn't speak about it.
I don't know if I was as ambitious as to change the world, but I do feel like - the reason why I called the album "Our Version of Events" was that I feel a lot of people are not represented in pop music and popular culture.
I think a lot of people feel like they still have something to prove, because when you get in and you're chasing success, you always feel like you have something to prove. But at this point, I feel like an underdog, and I actually like being in that position.
I feel empathy for people who are trapped in a prison of self-consciousness in an uncomfortable way. We can be free, but we're so held back. So perhaps that's why I feel a duty to make my work. I feel liberated when I'm doing it, and I want other people to feel liberated through it.
The media are doing this, not because they have a sinister motive, but because they love to feel that they are influencing events. That's why they hate politicians so much, because politicians have direct power and they do not.
I like challenges. That's why if I read a script, and I feel, 'Oh, I can't do this,' I'll take that role, because if I feel like, 'Oh, I can do this,' I don't want to take that because I can't learn from that film.
I'm not on Twitter. I feel like it has a purpose because there are fans around the world that want to have some sort of interaction with you. But I feel like it is important to still keep some space and some distance, which is why I don't have a Twitter.
That's why I'm happy and why I love this s**t because there's not a moment in the day that I don't feel like I can go in and create a monster record because I love making people feel good. That's my job.
I don't think I've ever tried to be something that I'm not. People do that for you. People try to pigeonhole you. People tried typecasting me, before they even saw me in anything else. I've never understood that. I was like, "Why don't you wait until my next project, before you start telling my what my career is going to look like, for the next 10 years?" I've never let it set me back because I always knew the world would try to do that for me, anyway.
When I do interviews, sometimes I'll just be like "Why the hell did I say that?" because after I hang up the phone I realize there were so many things I could have said, but my brain just goes on lockdown. There's something about having conversations with people that's so much different from just singing and playing guitar. And I think a lot of people are actually performers because of that. I can't really explain why. It's like just the only chance you have in life to feel really good and outgoing.
Heart is tied with a lot of controversies, a lot of heartbreaks in show business. With 'Love Marie' who I really am in the real world. I feel more free, I feel more clean. I feel like people don't judge me, and that is why I shy away from being Heart when it comes to my painting.
But the great artists like Michelangelo and Blake and Tolstoi--like Christ whom Blake called an artist because he had one of the most creative imaginations that ever was on earth--do not want security, egoistic or materialistic. Why, it never occurs to them. "Be not anxious for the morrow," and "which of you being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?" So they dare to be idle, i.e. not to be pressed and duty-driven all the time. They dare to love people even when they are very bad, and they dare not to try and dominate others to show them what they must do for their own good.
I was fortunate to have people like Althea Gibson come and speak to me, also Leslie Allen and Arthur Ashe. So I feel obligated, part of my duty, to continue to pass on the knowledge I've learned to youngsters and adults alike.