What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.

Country music has the great stories.

A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.

When Malcolm X was assassinated I was working at the Apollo. They brought his body to the Unity Funeral Home, which was around the corner.

I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be.

The only time that I am really truly happy—when I feel at my best—is when I'm on the stage.

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.