I think the women - Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu - are doing new conceptual things and using their voices to create new American music.

There is not a lot that keeps me glued to the radio as I used to be.

My parents were music lovers and collectors. It was around.

Quite frankly, I've always listened to the black side of the radio dial. Where I grew up, there was a lot of it and there was a lot of live music around.

I'm easily distracted by other things in the world around me.

As far as other instrumentalists, I used to love mellow sax players like Paul Desmond. I love piano.

I'm still trying to re-create a Ray Charles concert that I heard when I was fifteen years old, and all my nerve endings were fried and transformed, and electricity shot through me.