I was rooming with Jimmy Bowen at the time, doing some gigs, then I went back to New Orleans and played there in '62.

When I came back to California in the early '60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.

I think after 1970 or so, after I sold Soul City, I took off for awhile and didn't do too many gigs.

I was rooming with Jimmy Bowen at the time, doing some gigs, then I went back to New Orleans and played there in '62.

Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.

One thing will lead to another and somebody will come up with a riff or a line or something we build from.

If you're going to get into music, you've got to learn the 12-bar blues.