I'd never looked at our house, or even our side of the street, and said, Oh! I wish we lived in the new development—those houses are so much newer, so much better! This is where I'd grown up. This was my home.

I didn't mind what she called me, what anybody called me. But this was the room I had to live in. It was all I had in the way of a home. In it was everything that was mine, that had any association for me, any past, anything that took the place of a family. Not much: a few books, pictures, radio, chessmen, old letters, stuff like that. Nothing. Such as they were, they had all my memories.

I grew up in the Valley, and I didn't know any of our neighbors. I think when you grow up like that, there's always sort of a fantasy of a place where everybody knew each other, and you had that safe sort of feeling.

Growing up in Michigan was fine...until I realized where I was.

I'm happy in L.A., but I will live wherever my kids are, and I don't really mind where it is. source

Where I grew up was counterproductive, stifling, boring and didn’t help me at all ... We made 99 percent of our music when we moved to California and I was a much happier person.

I started out just as a regular person, growing up in the Northwest. My father was a research scientist for the Department of Agriculture, studying trees. So I was in the woods a lot. And the woods for a child are magical. I lived in what people call small towns. My world was what would be considered about a city block, maybe two blocks. Everything occurred in that space. All the dreaming, all my friends existed in that small world. But to me it seemed so huge and magical. There was plenty of time available to dream and be with friends. I liked to paint and I liked to draw. And I often thought, wrongly, that when you got to be an adult, you stopped painting and drawing and did something more serious.

I always describe my upbringing as "benign neglect": that I was-- I really felt like my parents were just letting me live there 'til I grew up.

(in Old Town Albuquerque) This is where I grew up, I used to go to church here, and come here and perform. Wow, look at this! This is -- this is where i used to play. I should have brought my guitar, it brings back memories.

I knew right from the time I was about 6 years. I always stayed close to where music was and nothing else mattered in that moment. I wasn’t affected by other views as such, simply because my parents were the complete opposite. They were liberal and very supportive.

Everybody letting you be yourself. There wasn’t any air around us and not that we had everything we wanted, but we were contented. We never lacked anything when we were growing up. It was all very peaceful and there was no cause for complaints from the parents’ side.

I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.

I wasn't the kid who got involved in the streets. I liked to be at home with my family.

I grew up in Middle America and in the suburbs...