DJ Ashba quotes:

I found it more pleasurable to write something, sing a melody over it. At a very young age, I kind of honed my writing skills, I guess.

I was born into a very religious family with no TVs and a very strict Episcopal Christian religion. Music was my outlet and more of my therapy than anything, but yeah, it was the one thing in life that I've had, art and music.

I just never doubted myself. I always knew I was going to do something.

Music has been more, you know, the only thing I've ever known.

The fact that my dad was never around gave me a lot of determination. It really set this fire full of fuel, so to speak. It didn't matter what anybody was telling me, how many times I got rejected, because it was never as bad as being rejected by your own father.

The only thing I knew how to do was draw and play music.

I grew up in a really bad situation; my father left when I was young - you know, an abusive situation. So the minute I put my fingers on a guitar and closed my eyes and just played, it literally was like a drug. It took me into a totally different world, and I just pulled from emotions and experiences that I was going through.

I always was intrigued with writing my own stuff, and I was always really bad at learning other people's stuff.

I started out on guitar when I was nine years old, and I started playing bars and stuff when I was thirteen, and I've been playing ever since.

I work, to this day, from morning to night, seven days a week. I'm always working two, three years ahead of my own timeline; I'm a workaholic.