Fans will praise you, scold you, and offer helpful advice. Fans will also defend you.

It used to be that if you had a pretty good record, you could stop by a station in Little Rock or Atlanta and let the DJ listen to it. No way something like that can happen now.

Redd Foxx was the same gruff old codger you saw on television.

People pay attention to lyrics, and the race matter was delicate.

A lot of celebrities relish politics and are eager to lend their names to candidates and causes. I never wanted to be a spokesman for anybody.

Until MTV, television had not been a huge influence on music. To compete with MTV, the country music moguls felt they had to appeal to the same young audience and do it the way MTV did.

Baseball got into my blood early and I worked harder at it than anything.