As much as I transferred my mother to Elizabeth Shore of The Black Dahlia, as much as her dad mutated into an obsession with crime in general, well, I have thought about other things throughout the years.

I grew up watching Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and the other guys with my dad.

So my dad raised me, and he's a huge football fan.

When I found out I got this job, I cried, of course - I'm a girly-girl - and then I called my dad, and he cried, too. On so many levels, this is a thrill for me.

I grew up loving Walter Payton. My dad used to always show us film of him.

You know when everyone's watching, your mom and dad, your friends in high school who thought they were better than you. You get your chance to get in the spotlight and shine.

We would make songs, and the producers said we should play it for my dad. I was kind of scared, I didn't know what to think cuz we were just joking around.

My dad was a workaholic. I saw him work seven days a week.

I love my hockey, but if you can do that and go home and just be a dad and husband, then you have the best of both worlds.

Although becoming a singer was my plan A after first hearing Whitney Houston when I was 17, I started off with plan B by going to the teacher-training college that my dad went to. It was a slow coming of age.