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GP: Do you have confidence in your looks?
JG: I'm confident, but it's more a musical thing than a looks thing, and I think that maybe that translates. When I hear people on the message board or I read something in a magazine like "he's so hot," I'm like, are you kidding? I see myself at my geekiest, so I think, if they only knew.
GP: What's the one thing that would surprise fans about you?
JG: There's a lot that I've already said in interviews that the fans kind of know about me. I think the drums were a surprise, and now I play that in the PBS special. There's kind of like a secret, kind of darker, badass side to me that I wish I could take out sometimes. But I never will. I think more and more I want to take it out in my music, and kind of explore that in future CDs.
GP: Do you listen to your voice and think it's a voice of an older man?
JG: I don't. I've lived with it for many years now; it's just me. Other people say it sounds more mature or whatever, but it's always just me. I just listen for progress. I say to myself, here's something I need to change, or here's something I need to get better at.
GP: What gets better? The tonality?
JG: For the kind of singing that I do, I won't be in my prime until I'm 30, 35. And in that way, range just soars as you get older. And for me, this is my first tour; this is still so new. It's just experience and confidence. As you get older, nerves are the same and the perfectionism is the same, but I think that you learn a lot more. And certainly in the last couple years I've felt like it's not so terrifying anymore. I've got more answers to the questions that I had when I started: Can I do it? Who's out there? What can I expect from myself and what do they expect? And basically, can I do it? Can I walk off the stage feeling happy with myself? The answer is always yes, but how you get there is different every time.
GP: One thing that you'd change about yourself? David Bowie says too controlling, Iggy says too hard on himself.
JG: I would go with both of those. I would add, I would change my glass-half-empty personality. I think that maybe that's the same as both of them, but if there was one thing that I could change, it's taking an uncomfortable situation and seeing the good that could come out of it, or taking a great situation and not looking at the negative in that great situation. I think that part of being a perfectionist is that you almost become as bad as the critics. You're looking for things that you really shouldn't look for. And so my biggest thing is that I need to stop looking for the negative.
GP: That may drive you. If you change that, you may lose some of that edge.
JG: And it causes an edge, and it makes me feel like I'm on my toes. It makes me feel like even though deep down I know how wonderful and beautiful everything is, and how thankful I am for everything, there's always that kind of edge of looking behind my shoulder and feeling like, what's next? How do I push myself more? Sure, the audience loved this, but I know I could have done this better. I think unfortunately it's not something that I'm ever going to lose, but fortunately I think it may help me become a better artist. I don't know.
I see artists that are very much that way, and I respect them, and I say, you know what, it's that edge that probably continues to make them do what they do. And then I see an artist like Pavarotti [who] just goes out onstage, and I truly believe that the guy doesn't have a care in the world, just appreciates his gift and studies it and focuses and makes it beautiful, and then he opens his arms and he accepts that adoration. He just jumps in his pool, and likes to swim and eat and enjoy life. And that's another side that I think I need to work on, just enjoying it more. And maybe Pavarotti had the same things I do, when he was my age. But I think that's something that comes with experience. If I honestly wanted to lose the negativity and the edge, I probably would be on meds right now. No meds, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.
GP: You've had a role on Broadway and you were on ALLY MCBEAL. Tell me where that fits in your future plans.
JG: I hope it fits comfortably. I had such a great time doing the Actors Fund benefit on Broadway, and ALLY MCBEAL was just such a blast. It was such a difficult world. I think it's one of those things where I've got to go towards the fear. It's a world I don't know a lot about, but it's a world that I've enjoyed studying in the last four or five years, and if the right thing were to come around -- like everything else -- it'll feel right. And so I'm constantly reading scripts and I'm constantly looking at ideas to put myself out there in a different way, but not too blatantly and not in the wrong thing.
GP: So that's your backup plan.
JG: Exactly.
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in October 2004.
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