While housing discrimination and segregation in 2005 still affect millions of people, that's not the way it has to be. Some things can change and should.

We still play three or four hits every night. Now, we don't play them like the record. We try to find new ways to do it.

Some things will never change.

When I have the time at home, I'll practice three or four hours a day. I have to. And I'm a late starter; I started at age 17 and at age 51 I'm still learning.

I feel like what I owe my audience is what I'm most passionate about.

When I wrote the song, The Way It Is, I wanted to move people to take a stand on civil rights in this country.

Songwriters I've always been drawn to are people who deal with something of depth in the lyric writing. ...I've always been influenced by the folk song, the storytelling tradition in folk music. And so for years I wrote mostly story songs. I still do that, but as I've gone on, it's gotten a little more personal. I used to write mostly in the third person. I write a little more in the first person now.