Record companies would rather you stay dumb, not even think of it as a business, so they can either rip you off or get you out of the way in five years to make way for the new groups.

I'm always surprised that I'm still around funk and that people are still into it.

Free your mind and your ass will follow

My ability has always been to walk out on the stage and see the audience and figure out what they wanna hear.

I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.

I worked in a barbershop. I used to make the waves in the brother's hair, you know? Like, Nat King Cole, Sugar Ray Robinson.

Think! It ain't illegal 'yet.'