Let's start with the church. As you know, it's my background, it's a natural setting for me and it's definitely my roots.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.

I think the hardest thing is losing weight. That's the hardest thing more than anything else.

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.

I like Beyonce's music - some of it, not all of it.

Clark Terry is an American Master. I love to listen to him, particularly 'Mumbles.' I was so delighted when we received degrees together, along with Edward Kennedy, at the New England Conservatory in 1997.

I've never recorded anything I didn't like.