Music is an attitude. It's a sensation to the average person, to the human being. And keep it simple, stupid. That's always been my theory.

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

I became stereotyped.

Every time I went into the studio some engineer tried to impress me with how they're going to capture my sound with all kinds of tricks. But they limited the sound and never allowed me to play how I felt.

I always felt people should live with animals.

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

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.