My grandfather on my mother's side played banjo and mandolin. He and his brother had a duo and did a radio show in the 20's and 30's, so he was way into music. Because he played, it made my parents more open to what I was doing as a kid. Even though he started when he was 10, Mooney's parents had the usual reservations about the boy performing music for a living. By the time I was 18, the fact that my grandfather had been a musician made them more supportive than some other parents might have been.
Blues is a lot closer to people's hearts.
The big questions in people's lives revolve around spirituality, because it's on of the most elusive things. It's something you can't explain to someone who doesn't know. You can't make a believer out of a skeptic until the skeptic experiences it for himself. I feel like my whole life evolved from that, since I was 1 year old. It's been a lifelong quest, and I'm still trying to figure it out.