Water from the white fountain didn't taste any better than from the black fountain.

I look at an audience kind of like meeting my in-laws for the first time. You want to be yourself, but you still want to be somebody that they like. When I go on the stage each night, I try my best to outguess my audience.

There's a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There's also happiness to it if you want to hear it.

Blues purists never cared for me. I don't worry about it. I think if it this way: When I made 'Three O' Clock Blues,' they were not there. The people out there made the tune. And blues purists just wrote about it. The people is who I'm trying to satisfy.

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.

I don't try to just be a blues singer - I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.

I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.