Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.

The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That's the pulse.The African pulse. It's all the way back from . . . the old slave chants and up through the blues, the jazz, and up through rock. And it's all got the African pulse.

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It's not an occupation or profession, it's a compulsion.

Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.

I'm sure critics have their purpose, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what he did.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.