I'm very much a gentleman in what I do.

But I'm a rock 'n' roll singer; that's my livelihood, my occupation.

I am the innovator. I am the originator. I am the emancipator. I am the architect of rock 'n' roll!

And I don't get down on nobody else for doing whatever else they do. To each his own.

That's what Tina Turner did, too - sang blues up-tempo - and they called it rock 'n' roll.

I let people know that it was all right to do the kinds of things I did.

I got fame and fortune, and I lost my sense of reasoning.