I got a girl named Bony Maronie, she's as skinny as a stick of macaroni.

Black people lived right by the railroad tracks and the train would shake their houses at night. I would hear it as a boy and I thought: I'm gonna make a song that sounds like that.

I thank God for Elvis Presley. I thank the Lord for sending Elvis to open the door so I could walk down the road.

But men are so full of greed today, they'll sell anything for a little piece of money.

If at first you don't succeed, you get back up and you try ... and you try ... and you try it again ... except ice skating, I hate this crap, I quit!

I am the architect of rock n' roll. I have to be a fan of all its forms.

Rock 'n' roll offered me a platform to speak what I felt. It also offered me a platform to support my mama and my brothers and sisters - twelve children.