To me, country music is like the blues, but it's something very hip and - I don't want to say commercial - but it's very worldly and good listening.

At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over and life is like a song.

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.

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.

I've gone through so much in my life. I should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I'm the happiest I've ever been.

I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay.

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