My father believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.

A singer's biographical film should have their music and their voice.

I came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn't have the other $20,000. I should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.

The main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution. Ataturk saw where history was going. He really did in Turkey what we are all hoping somebody will do in [Islamic] countries where fundamentalists thrive, that they get somebody today that has the vision that Ataturk had in 1915.

The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.

Theres two kinds of music: black soul music, and the white imitation thereof.

My first wife was a theater person.