If you don't have story to tell the public at large - you have to be able to sort of go listen.

What I think is the universal, wonderful thing about music, is that it's very inclusive.

I think musicians are always supportive of each other because they want the groove to keep going on. They just basically want to play music.

When I would be on the stage singing, I would see a movie of something that happened, I would be telling the story. I would be describing the story in sound, but my goal would be to make somebody else run their own movie.

Ninety-nine percent of singing is listening and hearing, and so then 1 percent of it is singing.

I think if the United States gave anything to culture at large in the 20th century, the most important contribution made was the popular song.

Your musical soul is like facets of a jewel, and you stick out one facet at a time ... (and) I tend to work real hard on whatever it is I do, to get it up to speed, up to a professional level. I tend to bury myself in one thing for years at a time.