Help me, Jesus. I know what I am.

I wear black because I'm comfortable in it. But then in the summertime when it's hot I'm comfortable in light blue.

I am not a Christian artist, I am an artist who is a Christian.

If you have political convictions... keep 'em to yourself

That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.

I've never been accused of a felony. I never spent time behind bars except for a few overnight jail times back in the Sixties. [But] I think there's a little bit of a criminal in all of us. Everybody's done something they don't want anybody to know about.

The more I learn, the more excited I get.