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GP: Tell me about your fans.
JG: On tour, that was when I really first started to see kind of what a huge, wide demographic was in the audience. When we first started the tour it was mainly kind of 35-plus women in the audience, which is great. You know, they were enthusiastic and they really were the first people to listen to the music. But as we started moving to larger venues and started performing more and more, and VH-1 became such a big support, their kids started listening to the music, or their husbands, or girls and their boyfriends. For whatever reason, it started becoming a word of mouth [phenomenon] in the younger fan base, and at the shows there is a combination of some older people and then some, like, screaming, crazy younger people, which is fantastic. It's really exciting for me to see young people rush to the front, and slap my hand or whatever. Soon they'll be moshing. But it's really, really fun for me to see so many people my age and younger.
GP: How do you take care of your voice?
JG: It takes over my life, really. There's a lot of discipline and a lot of -- what's the word I'm looking for? Sacrifices, you know? I would assume I probably get, or at least make it a priority [to get], way more rest than you do. I'm a night owl, and I love to live off of four hours of sleep every night and just wake up buzzed and go to sleep buzzed, and just want to work. I want to work, work, work, work, work. The biggest thing that I've had to force myself to do is get eight hours a night; you know, if I have a TV show to do, as nervous as I am, get to bed, get a massage, do something. All it takes is one night onstage in front of 10,000 people when you feel like you should have had more rest, and you are never awake again when you're not supposed to be. There certainly have been times where it's been harder than others to get through it. I don't think it makes any difference to the audience, but for me there's certain nights where I feel like this is a sharp instrument. This is something I can really, really play tonight. And there's some nights where I feel like, okay, technique, help me out here, because my cords are not having it right now. And that's live performance. That's doing 81 shows, and 105 before the tour is over. I think that every night you learn something new about what you need to do, about whether it's not eating two to three hours before you go onstage, sometimes even longer, or just making sure you get enough sleep every night. The voice is not as fragile as people say it is. I think a lot of people are so overly careful with their voice. That's not to say I don't take care of it and that I don't study hard, and certainly don't abuse it. For the most part, you do the most basic of things: not being around cigarette smoke, don't be a heavy drinker, [and] don't miss out on your sleep.
GP: Do you have a motto or something you say to yourself when you're nervous?
JG: I think that "just do it" kind of sums it up. Ever since I was first discovered by David Foster, I would be put onstage in front of a real heavy audience, just kind of like, oh, my God, is that who I think it is? And I'd go onstage and [start thinking] it was so easy in rehearsal, why am I choking up right now? And then the song would start, and I'd look at David and I'd look at the crowd and I'd look at my microphone, and you just have to say to yourself, just do it. And you get into a zone, and before you know it you realize that the anxiety that built up to it is so much worse than being out there and being in control and just getting it over with. The worst parts for me are 20 minutes before the show starts, or 10 minutes before a TV performance, or whatever, or the two days before a TV performance. I pace. I'm a power pacer. I'm pacing right now, in fact. Talking about pacing is making me pace.
GP: Do you think that your good looks are a detriment or a weapon?
JG: Oh, gosh. I think that I'm okay looking. I wouldn't say that it was the reason why -- well, I mean, it's hard to say. I think that I have a look. I think that it was a look that I didn't even realize I had until someone told me I had it. When I was in high school I was always kind of the geeky beatnik theater kid. I guess I translated [that] into what I do now. I didn't start getting popular in high school until like 11th, 12th grade. I spent a whole five, six years in elementary school and junior high school just being completely ignored and being, like, the biggest dork in the world. And then I started realizing I could sing, and I started growing up a little more, and people started noticing me more. It just kind of was like, okay, well, this is nice.
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in October 2004.
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