I relate to it on a spiritual level. As far as Phone Call From Leavenworth , I was living in Europe at the time, a couple of years before I got signed. And I was trying out of desperation to write hit radio music, and I put myself in this block. The title came from James Taylor s Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd , actually. It s a song about being in a creative jail, where certain values put me in this creative jail.
People take it literally, though.
I never played in a cover band. As I grouped the songs it, started to come together. It was really improvised, and I approached it like a soul singer. When I did it, I didn t like it, but afterwards I liked it. I learned a lot from it.