People always say 'Etta, you know what your problem is? You're neither fish nor fowl. There is no place to rack you.' When I would go in a record shop, you might find one or two records by me in different stacks.

Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.

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

I figured I could do "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World" because I believe it's the truth.

My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!

Country music has the great stories.

Now I can stand up on the stage again like I used to after five years of sitting down while I sang.