GOALS FOR THE NEW CENTURY: I'd like to be able to beam places. First thing first, though: my driver's license ran out in 1978, and I never got it renewed, because I never went anywhere alone. We got famous so fast, I just didn't get in a car and go to the market anymore. I miss driving around and listening to music, but now I have to take the test over, Maybe that should be my New Years resolution.

POLITICAL EVENT: Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton was about the wildest thing that's ever happened politically. That was sex and love and politics and soap opera. I'm always looking for wild and crazy things, so I was pretty taken with the craziness. I wasn't happy with either of them, but when you've been famous for a long time, you're a little more lenient, because sh*t happens.

ADVICE FOR THE CLASS OF 2000: When I was younger my mom said "I totally believe that you're going to be a singer and a famous songwriter. But just in case, Stevie, I need you to take typing and I need you to take shorthand, And if you go to college, we'll pay for everything." And I went, I think that you should get the best education you can, and then if you want to go off and be a total entrepreneur space cadet, that's fine. But if you are called upon to take care of somebody or keep something together, you gotta have studied something.

BIGGEST INFLUENCES: When I was getting started, Joni Mitchell was my greatest influence, because songwriters were the ones who I really emulated, and she was the best of the songwriters. But I don't really listen to her anymore. Now when I sit down at the piano, my influence comes from people who aren't musicians, a friend calls me up in tears about something that's happening to her and that'll influence what I write.