When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.

I tried to look presentable for a show, but not for sexual attraction. It was strictly for show business.

I look back on my life, comin' out of Macon, Georgia - I never thought I'd be a superstar, a living legend. I never heard of no rock and roll in my life.

I don't give the devil credit for creating nothing.

I think they saw me as something like a deliverer, a way out. My means of expression, my music, was a way in which a lot of people wished they could express themselves and couldn't.

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 I was singing loud, and most singers weren't singing loud.