I was blown away by the control and the range that I was hearing. I'm listening to Pavarotti and thinking, What the hell have I been doing with my voice all these years?

For years I've kept a list of dream projects.

When your car is about to go off a cliff, it’s a weird time to be thinking about gas mileage and drag coefficients; better to take the right control action—look out the window and steer or use the brake until you’re back on course.

A lot of my success comes from black music. It's something I'm very proud of.

We used to call it recurrent airplay when someone had a hit

I still get butterflies. It's because there's a certain level of responsibility you carry when doing a concert. You've got to sound at least as good as the record.

I'm proud of my mentors. Ray Charles is the strongest influence on me as a singer