I'll be gray by the time I'm 30, but I like my hair. It looks shiny. I like the way it looks when those highlights are picked up on camera.

We have a tendency in this country that when we say Black it automatically means Black Americans. But that's a big mistake, and that keeps us divided. There are Blacks all over this entire world-even in Africa.

I have a pleasant voice, but I have no great range. I will say that I know how to make a song come alive and I guess I do have a sincerity that comes across. But I do alot of things better than sing.

I didn't have to go to school, graduate and then go, What am I going to do? I knew from the beginning.

I refuse to let anybody try to typecast me. It's against my nature. I like to continually do different things.

It got to a point of where it was ruining my health and I just hated it. I hated doing it and I couldn't stop without some kind of help to get the longing for it out of my system.

Here I found myself in my early 20s, at the height of my career, up against something I was totally powerless against. I had enemies I had never heard of because of this. I certainly didn't have needles hanging out of my arms, nor did I smoke anything.