Her Diamonds is inspired by a very personal subject: your wife’s battle with an autoimmune disease. Tell me about that.
About six or seven years ago, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, a connective tissue disorder kind of akin to lupus, but luckily not quite as bad as lupus. It’s one of those things that you don’t really get rid of, you just kind of learn how to live with. When you have something like that, it’s always good days or bad days. And the bad days are really, really bad. It has made her really resilient.
 
You have expressed discomfort with celebrity and opening up about your private life. Is it difficult to sing about such a sensitive topic?
There’s kind of a veil between myself and what I’m writing because I’m writing about an emotion. Diamonds, to me, was a little closer, a little more on the money, because there are things in there that came exactly from moments in my real life. It was so weird and hard to get out, but it was so necessary for me, and then once I did it, I had the catharsis of writing that song. It’s not like everybody should hear it because I’m going to be the new [effing] musical therapist, but just because this is a good song.

You’re not in the tabloids every day. If you were, what would we see? 
The only reason I’m not in the tabloids is because I think anyone who doesn’t want to be doesn’t have to be. It’s really easy not to be unless you make yourself so ubiquitous, like Lindsay Lohan. I think even if she moved to Guam, they would follow her at least for a little while.

So you’re saying that Lindsay puts herself in those situations…
Well, she does, and I’m not going to speak ill of Lindsay. Sam Ronson is a really good friend of mine. Just in general, that culture and those people…it starts off, you want to get a little more press, get your name out there, so your publicist calls and says you’re going to be here. All it takes is one night when you’re at that party and you come out blind drunk and fall on the sidewalk or get into a fight. Then you’re fodder and it catches on.

You’re big into Twitter. Which celebrities would you follow?
I think John Mayer is good at trying to use it in a lot of fun ways to connect with his fans. Chris Cornell – most people only see the dark, brooding side of Chris, and it’s really funny when you follow him and you see him talk about his kids and his wife and that he misses them or that he’s in a hotel alone. I think it’s great that he would allow people to get at that side of him. People have different ideas about me. Some people think that I’m a lighthearted, fun guy, and some people think that I’m just a totally dark, brooding guy. They’re both wrong, because nobody I know is that one-dimensional.
 
Who is the best songwriter in each genre of music?
Rap:  Kanye. Well, that’s not true, I have to go with Mos Def. I think Kanye makes the most interesting tracks, but Mos Def is a true songwriter of rap.
Pop: I think [OneRepublic’s] Ryan Tedder is really good.
Rock: Tom Petty.
Country: Willie Nelson.