My uncle gave me a trumpet, but I loved the Louis Armstrong sound and the Harry James sound and I played by ear and I played always soulful or very direct from the gut.

My son now is 22 months old, he's been playing since he was 12 months old and he gets standing ovations on the drums. He's been with us since he was 10 weeks old, he's been on the drums. He's got blisters on his fingers before he can even talk.

People just loved the sound because I kept it simple.

I'm constantly being influenced by the soul that's directly in front of me.

I became stereotyped.

I'll just tell you the way it is. You ask me what time it is and I'm gonna tell you how to build a clock.

I grew a love for helpless, defenseless things. People would give me lions and jaguars. I had cheetahs, monkeys.