[Introduction, playing acoustic "No Such Thing"]
JM: Playing music for me is as close to having super powers as you can have. Unless you're superman. And then you'd make fun of me for saying that.
[Performs acoustic "3x5"]
JM: "3x5" is a better song than my ability to write a song. And when that happens, they're just presents from somewhere. And you just respect them as best you can, and make sure you don't ever stand on stage and sing it with any less passion than you really, really can. Cause they could have been anyone's songs and you happened to find 'em. So yeah. "3x5."
[Performs acoustic "Neon"]
JM: I don't know if I write lyrics because I've got to have you know what I'm saying unless I'm gonna wither. I think I do it because I'm a chatterbox and I would tell you my problems anyway.
[Studio "Your Body is a Wonderland" playing]
JM: Every song on Room For Squares I could never imagine any single line being different. Because I want to prove to myself and other people that, No it's not the record, it's not the time or the place that you do it. It's the person making it.
I don't think I've ever felt like I couldn't come up with something new. Out of anything in my life. Ever see someone do this? [Makes whistling sound by blowing on his hand] I haven't either.
[Performs acoustic "Always on Time" by Ja Rule]
JM: For years I'd have dreams about getting a guitar and I'd go to a friend's house and he'd have a guitar with like three strings on it. And I'd tune it up—somehow that sounded right to me, wasn't right at all—and I was always mystified by it. And I still am. I wake up in the morning and I look at it and I go, What could possibly happen today? And it never goes away. And I've learned so much by that. Not only as a guitar player, but as a person.
[Performs acoustic "3x5"]
JM: When I go on stage, I plug in the guitar, and I do that thing. I don't even know how to explain that thing. But whatever it is for anybody, whether it's singing, guitar playing. But I put the guitar on, and it must feel the way a pilot feels when he sits in the seat and he puts the headset on.
[Studio "Your Body is a Wonderland" playing]
JM: I'm not a fully developed singer. I can't sing past a certain note, that I really wish I could. And I can't read music off the page. But I think with those pieces that I have, I really love building different things out of it everyday.
[Studio "Not Myself" playing]