The Big Band Era is my era. People say, 'Where did you get your style from?' I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That's the best way I could explain it.

It's amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.

Rock 'n' roll accepted me and paid me, even though I loved the big bands I went that way because I wanted a home of my own. I had a family. I had to raise them. Let's don't leave out the economics. No way.

If the people in the audience are talking, you're being ignored. If the people are gazing at you, you've got something they want to hear.

When I was a kid I used to scoot under the table, and whenever company would come around you know or my sisters or parents would tell me, go under the table and I'd do it because it was entertainment for the family or aunts or whatever. And one time at the Paramount when I first did it, you know, Brooklyn Paramount, I did it in the act during an instrumental and it got a big ovation and so I coined it as one of the things I should do in the act. And since I've been doing it.

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.

All I want for Christmas is a rock n roll electric guitar.