Speaking of honest, there's the song No Tears, which is beautiful and intensely personal. Is it hard for you to write about such vivid emotions?

"No, it's not. I suppose that's my bread and butter, isn't it? My songs are my way of looking in the mirror and seeing my own flaws, so it's not difficult. In fact, it would be much harder to write very superfluous songs, things that didn't mean anything to me."

Obviously, you rose to fame quite quickly with You're Beautiful. Do you still enjoy playing it?

"Definitely. I go to a show, and I see people out there waiting to be entertained and to be taken on an emotional journey, and if I left that song out, they'd be upset. If I play it, it brings smiles to everybody's faces. As a performer, it's very easy for me to get up and dial in where that song came from. I can focus in on what it meant to me when I wrote it, but more importantly, I can see what it means to people around the world. All of its success and the connections people have attached to it haven't dimmed that at all. To me, it's still a great song that I enjoy playing."

It's clear that you have a sense of humor about it. I quite liked your appearance on Sesame Street where you turned it into A Triangle.

[laughs] "Ahh, yes! A career high, being on Sesame Street. It doesn't get much bigger, does it? [laughs] All kidding aside, it was great and very special. Hey, to have the word 'hypotenuse' in any song, I would call that a triumph in anyone's book."

You're Beautiful is a big song, one of the biggest sellers in the last 10 years. It's the kind number writers dream about having. But, as you know, with that kind of success, there's tons of people who…well, they just don't like the song. It drives them nuts. You know that, don't you?

"Of course. And why they don't like it, why it drives them crazy, is because it's ubiquitous. You're Beautiful was probably overplayed - it happens. If people just heard it once or twice, they would say, 'Hey, that's a nice song.' They hear it everywhere they go, a thousand times, and of course it's going to wear on them. I'm not blind to that. It's totally understandable."

Are there any such songs that drive you crazy?

[pauses] "Yeah… I should have an answer for that, shouldn't I? I'm sure there is one, but I just can't think of it right now. There's got to be something.... Maybe I've just been away from the radio for so long and been locked in the studio that I just can't… [laughs] I know there's got to be at least one, but nothing's coming to me. Put it this way: Yes, there is a song that drives me crazy, but I'm drawing a blank."