Of course, I can say that because I made a lot of money. I still think I'm the guy you can have a drink with after work. Well, I still think I'm the guy you can have a drink with after work. Just because I'm not writing pop tunes, it doesn't mean I don't have the same mindset. As a matter of fact, I know he did.
Composers think of themselves as craftsmen.
We don't think of ourselves as being so high and mighty that we can't be in touch with the realities of life. That's where the wellspring of ideas come from in the first place. I never left that. It's always about that. People assume I'm writing for an audience or a record company.