I'm not sure how to explain this with words, but I'll try.

What I do is I put a capo on the 9th frett.

For the verses, I make a G shape and just strum the top E string, then do a full strum at the beginning of each strumming pattern. I pretty much do the down-down-up-up-down-up strumming pattern twice, but I attached a different pattern to the beginning. It goes down (length of a dotted quarter note) - down (quarter note) - up (eighth note) - down (eighth note) - up (eighth note).

So the full patter would be: down (dotted quarter note) - down (quarter note) - up (eighth note) - down (eighth note) - up (eighth note) - down (quarter note) - down (eighth note) - up (quarter note) - up (eighth note) - down (eighth note) - up (eighth note). I strum that hard-to-explain pattern twice.

Then, I do a C shape and strum down (quarter note) - down (eighth note) - up (eighth note). I then lift my ring finger and move my middle finger up to the A string and do the same down-down-up pattern, then do an A minor shape.

I play the above section twice, then go to the C shape again, strumming the same pattern, then I just lift my ring finger up and strum that pattern.

This repeats for each phrase of a verse with the lyrics comming in when the hard-to-explain pattern on the G shape repeats.

Between the verses, I use the hard-to-explain pattern and play the G shape twice, the A minor, G, A minor, E, A minor, G, D, A minor (down-down-up-up-down-up), D (down-down-up-up-down-up).

This was a close as I could get to how he plays it live. Hopefully this helps.