Johnny Colt

Lead by examples, not words.

I have my own favorites; right now it's 'Simple Man,' but that changes from time to time.

I was 8 years old when I started listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bad Company and Led Zeppelin.

My journalistic heroes are all the guys like Peter Arnett of Vietnam, and my style in journalism is you got to stand there, and you got to see it with your own eyes.

I started shooting pictures because I had all these photographers around me, and life was kind of boring creatively because you play the same songs every night. So I looked for another outlet, and I started shooting.

While I was in India, my yoga teacher asked me to start teaching, and my life became about that for years. I taught 18 classes a week, therapeutics, and traveled to study with other teachers.

One of the things about dealing with an artist is that their art is essentially - if they're successful, it's kind of lightning in a bottle. There is no formula for it.

Yoga is how I got sober.

Some Lynyrd Skynyrd songs are literally the backdrop of America. Songs like 'Simple Man' and 'Free Bird' and 'Alabama.' I wasn't prepared for how emotional the crowd gets during the songs.

In a lot of ways, Nauru is something like a canary in a coal mine: It's a tiny place with more than its share of troubles, most of them the kind that might have been prevented.

In an odd way, it is refreshing to be around people who aren't attention-starved and media-addicted.

If the Pacific took Nauru, it'd wash away one of the strangest and most troubled places on Earth.

The news of Mubarak stepping down came as I was sitting in my Jordanian home away from home.

It's difficult, because when you're a popular singer who makes money, you're basically a race horse. And that's how you're treated by the people around you.

I grew up in Japan. It's my first memories of life are Japan.

Musically, what happened was this: I retired twice. I retired after The Black Crowes, and I retired after Brand New Immortals. Then, we started buying real estate, which really took up my time. I was busy. I was still teaching yoga, but I was mostly busy running business, and I was fine. I was happy.

When I had a kid, it was a game changer.

I had a deal with CNN and had no intention of going back to the music business, but you know, it's Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Oil's in everything we have, from anesthetics to aspirations to aspirins to most parts of the cell phone contain oil. We interface with oil in every part of our life.

When I left my band, I had to start over from scratch, and that's a scary place to go.