The main thing for me was when I won my first title in Kuala Lumpur. That was the biggest step that I made. I made the Top 100, and I've stayed there ever since.
For the millennium, we flew to Kuala Lumpur and then on to Pangkor Laut, a nearby island.
I don't know if you're familiar with Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. You step outside the hotel, and you're soaking wet within 10 minutes.
Growing up I played piano and I sang at a lot of weddings; I grew up in a very small town, a little coal-mining town in Virginia called Grundy. And my family was very sing-songy at home.
It sounds like a cliche, but it... you do sing about what you know about. And I grew up in a small town, and I grew up in a place where your whole world revolved around friends, family, school, and church, and sports.
I think being bi-continental is something I want to continue. Kuala Lumpur is my home, but L.A. is where I've been able to make the music that I want.
I dont know if youre familiar with Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. You step outside the hotel, and youre soaking wet within 10 minutes.
Kuala Lumpur was my first ever multi-sports games. I didn't do very well but the experience and enjoyment I had of those games really made me realize how much work I had to do and inspired me to work harder for the Sydney Olympics.
I grew up around whites, I grew up around Jews, I grew up around blacks, I grew up around Hispanics. We moved a lot.
I got a promo of 'Nichts Muss' in what would have been 2002 or 2003 and fell totally in love with it after listening to it on an airplane that took me to Australia via Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.
I grew up in a very masculine environment. So I was around a lot of men, my brothers and their friends. There was just a lot of guys around.
I grew up around the corner from my grandparents' dairy farm, which was three miles outside of a small town called Phoenix.
I grew up in a little town in Arkansas called Clarksville and it was a weird existence, you know? I grew up white trash; we had holes in our walls.
I grew up in a very racially integrated place called Pottstown. It was an agricultural / industrial town which has since become a suburb of Philadelphia. I grew up basically in a black neighborhood.
I grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood. I grew up around drugs, alcohol, prostitution, I grew up around everything, and I think part of seeing that from really young has made me really steer very far away from it in all of its forms.
What makes most people comfortable is some sort of sense of nostalgia. I grew up in a small town, and I could count my friends on one hand, and I still live that way. I think I'll die in a small town. When I can't move my bones around a stage any more, you'll find me living in a place that's spread out and rural and spacious.