My view is that you cannot close your mind and say I don't want to listen to this or that. Because if you can't appreciate the bad for being bad, you can't appreciate the good. If you turn a deaf ear to everything but one style, pretty soon it's not going to work out.

I don't have perfect pitch, but I have relative pitch. I'm glad I don't have perfect pitch because perfect pitch can drive you crazy.

I was still in school at the time and Cab was very popular and everybody was doing Cab Calloway so I did.

I'm not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don't last.

I was so enamored with the idea of being in show business so everything was bright to me. I mean, I didn't think of it as being tough and things like that.

If you want to be a musician, study your craft. Study music.

When Byrd came out of there, he had written a lot things while he was in the hospital.