I'm from a singing family, but they're not professional singers, only gospel - my grandfather was a minister. I started to sing the music that was out then because my mother used to play it all the time. It was the end of the '50s, the beginning of the '60s. There was Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, Etta James... We used to sit outside on the stoop and sing. We even used to put our radios and record players outside.

I want to go Africa. I want to go to China. There are some places I want to go not to work, but to really explore and to see for my own education.

It seems like I don't have a lot of time for all the things I need to do. I'm spreading myself fairly thin. I have responsibilities to my children. I have a big staff that works for me. And when you have a staff, and I'm sure you know this, you're always concerned with everybody's life all the time.

My life has often been described as 'from rags to riches' but in fact, the Ross's were never raggedy.

Being a parent is very important to me.

Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.

I look forward to the future - and going into the studio to make new music.