Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.

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

You can't fake this music. You might be a great singer or a great musician but, in the need, that's got nothing to do with it. It's how you connect to the songs and to the history behind them.

Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.

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.

My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that.

It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.