Like a lot of you I grew up in a family on the ragged edges of the middle class. My daddy sold carpeting and ended up as a maintenance man. After he had a heart attack my mom worked the phones at Sears so we could hang on to our house.

Basketball is my passion I love it. But my family and friends mean everything to me. That's what's important. I need my phone so I can keep in contact with them at all times.

The joke in our family is that we can cry reading the phone book.

Marimba is much more of a wood-type experience and there is no real possibility of getting a dry sound and getting that contrast in the same way that you can in a vibraphone.

My father is a real idealist and he's all about learning. If I asked for a pair of Nikes growing up it was just a resounding 'No.' But if I asked for a saxophone one would appear and next day and I'd be signed up for lessons. So anything to do with education or learning my father would spare no expense.

There are 4 billion cell phones in use today. Many of them are in the hands of market vendors rickshaw drivers and others who've historically lacked access to education and opportunity. Information networks have become a great leveler and we should use them together to help lift people out of poverty and give them a freedom from want.

Tell me about yourself - your struggles your dreams your telephone number.

If you were the first person ever to design an application for the iPhone and you patented it you would be very very better off than we are right now you know? But you've got to be the first one to do it. So I figured that Led Zeppelin or the Stones were going to do it unless we just got on to it. So I got cracking with the guys from Apple.

Everyone wants an iPhone but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product it's an understanding of human nature.

But then I'm one of those guys that is still a bit afraid of the telephone its implications for conversation. I still wonder if the jukebox might be the death of live music.

For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.

For days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.

What is the value of sticking a microphone in a man's face right after he has learned of his wife's death?

My life isn't that dramatic. My dad really loves me he just can't talk on the phone. He's too crippled and shy and that's almost harder. He's there and he loves me and I try and try and try it's just impossible to have a relationship.

I used to listen to my dad a lot as a way of trying to be close to him as well because my parents were divorced and I didn't spend that much time with him. And I used to put headphones on and listen to my dad talk and sing and I found that quite... bonding with him in a weird way.

I lost my dad way too early and it was agonisingly awful. I missed him so much and I hated knowing that I could never again pick up the phone to tell him about my day.

I just went off for two months traveling around Europe on a motorcycle and pretty much turned my phone off. I did 5 000 miles with my dad. We went through Holland Germany Austria Slovenia Croatia Bosnia Montenegro Italy... and then I did Spain and France by myself.

And I saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought I'm going to learn the saxophone. When I grow up I'm going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan.

Personally I just got one of these Vonage IP phones. It's actually pretty cool. It comes with one of these Cisco ATA routers where you just plug an analog handset in.

I actually bought a travel guitar and that guitar is really cool. You can actually fold the guitar and you can plug headphones into it but it's acoustic or semi-acoustic.

I just got an iPhone which is cool but I don't download movies I don't watch Hulu I don't have Netflix. I don't do any of that. But I do geek out to music.

Obviously anything that accessorizes or enhances the iPhone is always pretty cool.

Growing up politics never trickled down to the areas we come from. But people from Obama's camp and Obama himself reached out to me and asked for my help on the campaign. We've sat and had dinner and we've spoken on the phone. He's a very sharp guy. Very charming. Very cool.

Playing and singing at the same time is pretty cool but sometimes it's difficult to know when you can just really let go a bit because you've got to get back to bloody microphone and sing some stuff.