I think the difficult thing is the transition between TV competition series and going into the actual music industry. There still seems to be a slight disconnect there.
I think the responsibility of pop stars is to liberate the masses. In that everyone can be whatever they wanna be. You can march to your own beat. It's so hard sometimes in our country because conformity is the way things are pushed.
Bowie's been a huge influence on me. I remember early on, my dad pulling out the 'Diamond Dogs' album, and the cover alone just grabbed my attention. I think I was probably around 12.