I can play every instrument there is, every horn, I've played all the saxes and trumpets and everything and keyboards.

I'll never die. I'll just explode, right there before your eyes, onstage.

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.

Every song is like a painting.

I became stereotyped.

I almost had to have my leg amputated because of an infection.

People just loved the sound because I kept it simple.