I would like to be remembered as a man who brought an innovation to popular singing.

The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.

Trouble just seems to come my way-unbidden, unwelcome, unneeded.

The martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth.

I get an audience personally involved in a song - because I'm involved myself. It's not something I do deliberately: I can't help myself. If the song is a lament at the loss of love, I get an ache in my gut. I feel the loss myself and I cry out the loneliness, the hurt and the pain that I feel.

Most of what has been written about me is one big blur, but I do remember being described in one simple word that I agree with. It was in a piece that tore me apart for my personal behavior, but the writer said that when the music began and I started to sing, I was "honest."

You buy a Ferrari when you want to be somebody. You buy a Lamborghini when you are somebody.