I knew about AIDS. My friends were dying right, left, and center. I did a record with Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, and Gladys Knight. I did a couple of benefits.

I'm glad I've given up drugs and alcohol. It would be awful to be like Keith Richards. He's pathetic. It's like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go onstage and look young.

I've been going to Russia since 1979. I've been going quite frequently, and I've always had a wonderful rapport with the Russian audiences and with the Russian people.

I really don't need the public's money. I'd like to have something on the internet with charitable donation optional, where anyone can download my music for free.

Well, I quit those days and my redneck ways.

I didn't sleep with anyone till I was 23.

I had progressed on stage as a performer, but I hadn't progressed as a human being.