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 braggart, but when I was a little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing.

People that can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.

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.

That's where it begins and ends for me and these songs were the ones that touched me the deepest. It was like I was laying hold of some part of me that I didn't even know was there until I let it out.

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.

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.