What an amazing question! What an amazingly LOADED question! While I could make certain assumptions or educated guesses under the "we" category, in the long run,I can only, genuinely speak for myself.

Why do I sing? Because there is no experience on Earth which which matches that of the moment when mind, soul, spirit and song fuse into one entity. It is impossible to imagine that anyone will ever develope a drug to duplicate that incredible high. I'm addicted as hell and I'm damned proud of it!

Why do I sing? Because I can -- therefor I must. What I mean is that I was raised to believe the root of all evil is not money or hatred. The root of all evil is the sin of waste. It has been said by one much wiser than I that all that is needed for evil to triumph is for people of good will to do nothing. If one does not actively exercise one's capacity for love or compassion, one is actively clearing a space in which hatred and neglect may grow. To not use one's ability to sing is to add to evil's deadly silence. To sing is to become one of many voices striving to squeeze evil out of the universe.

Why do I sing? Because I'm a shameless HAM!! I am possessed by that peculiar strain of arrogance which infects entertainers of every stripe, compelling them to get up in front of a room full of abject, total strangers and demand that the strangers give a flying "F" about whatever it is the entertainer has to say. The late, great Milton Berle said it best, "Open your refrigerator door. When the light goes on I'll do twenty minutes."

Why do I sing? Because throughout my life I have been in a number of situations which should have either killed me or have made death a less objectionable option (the least harrowing of these being two years of homelessness).I'm still here to sing through the grace of God, the help of friends and the kindness and compassion of a lot of other people to whom I was an abject, total stranger. Singing is all I have to give back.

Why do I sing? Because for an unbelievable sixteen years of my life my late wife regularly told me that she found it comforting to hear me rehearsing in the next room. Because I truely believe in the transcenent power of music. Because, in addition to all the other reasons, it is the only way I have to tell her how deperately I still love and miss her.

Stephen