My biggest musical influences are probably my parents.

If I can bring joy into the world, then I'll be successful.

Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion — you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That’s how life is.

Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.

It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.

Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind. I actually fought the idea for a while because it seemed almost too radical, but it became obvious what I was supposed to be doing.

Whenever I'm onstage, I try my best not to think that I'm performing. It's simply another part of my day.