I'm not a braggart, but when I was a little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing.

When I'm performing for the people, I am me, then. I am that little girl who, when she was five years old, used to sing at church. Or I'm that 15-year-old young lady who wanted to be grown and wanted to sing and couldn't wait to be smokin' a cigarette, you know?

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

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

Johnny Guitar... just one of my favorite singers of all time. I met him when we were both on the road with Johnny Otis in the '50s when I was a teenager. We traveled the country in a car together.I would hear him sing every night.

When I'm singing the blues, I'm singing life.

In some ways, it's my rage that keeps me going.