Many people tell me to slow down but it's the love of the job that keeps me going!

Many people tell me to slow down. I know they do this out of concern - and after last Saturday's hospital incident, some folks asked me not to take the long trip to Ibiza, Spain. Well, let me try and explain. What keeps me going is doing my job. As a live musician, I consider the audience before I consider myself. This is how I'm wired. I detail how this behavior developed in my memoir. I worked at private airport around old-school entertainers and I'd see them drag their butts to work under amazing circumstances.

Don't misunderstand me, I more than appreciate your concerns and I don't ever want you to censor what you say because you may be right - and one day I might agree. But I don't do what I do recklessly. If I know I'm unable to perform the task, I don't try, but if I feel like there's an ounce of a chance, then I do my job. No ifs, ands, or buts. (sorry foreign language translators.) Saturday I was very sick, but I went to the hospital, rested, and the next day I felt up to the job.

Now I'm in Ibiza. Had I not come I wouldn't have been stranded on the plane for two hours and had pure sleep. I would not have run into my dear friend Chris Cornell, whom I found out was also appearing at Montreux Jazz this year and wants to sing with us. Mega! And I wouldn't be at this year's Ibiza International Music Summit, where I can Give Away what I've learned just like the old-schoolers before me.

I don't expect everyone to like my music - but I want everyone to expect me to like it. I love the gift of music and I want to keep it for the rest of my life. I was taught the only way you can keep it, is to Give It Away.