My mother birthed three children and she adopted myself and another African-American son. My adoptive parents were Finnish. I grew up in a white picket neighborhood.

After a show, I'll get the 16-year-old white kid whose lip is pierced, his head is shaved and his parents hate him, and the young gangster from the screwed-up 'hood, and they say that now they realize there's someone out there who thinks like they do.

We grew up in a very strange world, because my mother was up against it all when she had three black children.

We were very lucky. My mother and stepmothers were on very, very good terms, and so we, the children, grew up as brothers and sisters.

I grew up with the white picket fence. My dad went to work nine to five, and he had a station wagon.

The white folks like for us to be religious, then they can do what they want to with us.