I was extremely fortunate to live around the corner from a recording studio and to be chosen to have a paper route to make enough money to pay for the music lessons. I was one of the chosen few to have a job and to walk through the curtain at Stax Records was just an amazing thing for me to do at age 14.

Once you strike a note on the organ, it's going to stay with you until you either make it louder or softer or let it go. So it's a little bit like the human voice, so you can put a human characteristic in it.

The reason I wanted to become an organ player was because I heard Ray Charles play on Quincy Jones' arrangement of "One Mint Julep." I heard that sound, and it just struck me. I thought that's what I want to do with my life. That's the sound I want to try to make.

I was extremely fortunate to live around the corner from a recording studio and to be chosen to have a paper route to make enough money to pay for the music lessons. I was one of the chosen few to have a job and to walk through the curtain at Stax Records was just an amazing thing for me to do at age 14.