We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right.

Call in the Caped Crusader, Green Hornet, Kato, too. I'm in so much trouble I don't know what to do.

I love producing, writing. I rarely write with other writers unless I have a real great respect for them. Like Burt Bacharach, or Carole Sager, or Stevie Wonder. Somebody like Smokey - like that. Otherwise, I choose to write alone.

Yes, I've always been fashion conscious.

Politics are not my arena. Music is.

If a song's about something I've experienced or that could've happened to me it's good. But if it's alien to me, I couldn't lend anything to it. Because that's what soul is all about.

Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It's transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It's uplifting, it's encouraging, it's strengthening.