My songs were always about the tone of voice rather than the words.

Oftentimes, the way it seems to be is that our artists in particular point themselves out as spokesmen for a certain constituency in a community, and thereby place themselves in that vulnerable position.

I was one of the first three black students to go to an all-white school in Tennessee.

Music has the power to make me feel good like nothing else does. It gives me some peace for a while. Takes me back to who I really am.

I find it not just strange but almost ridiculous that people could take a song like the one I was doing and interpret it is corroding anything. Folks have the feeling that oftentimes if you don't talk about something it will go away.

I don't see any independent position that I'm in; it's rather inter-dependent.

Angel dust won't go away. Somefolks who were smoking it were going away.