"You can’t escape it. Elton [John], when the shit hit the fan with me, he reached out and told me that, ‘You won’t know why or how, and all you’ll know is the whole thing becomes ridiculous.’ Boy, was he right. You have to become water and get very Zen about it. You don’t try to take it on. You empathize. It’s like, ‘Oh, Ryan Adams murders people in his sleep,’ and there’s no way to change somebody’s view if they believe that. See this? It’s a guitar. I make songs. Fine if you don’t like them…I never said I was any good."