I never bothered about keeping track.Every now and then someone records one of my songs, and I get credit for it.

I don't remember any impression [from blues].The blues was just everywhere in the Mississippi Delta. It was mostly black sharecroppers living there, and there was a lot of blues around. Sometimes the guys would sing the blues in the fields, working.

I never thought I was playing black music. I was just playing music, the stuff I liked. I sang blues at parties and things when I was a kid.

I start out with words, with the idea, the line. Then after I get a line or two, I try to find what melodic line those lines would be suited to. As soon as I find the form I can finish the song in my head.

I sang and wrote songs when I was 12 years old.

So I'm in my 51st year of playin' mostly nightclubs. I do some concerts.

I finally decided if I was going to make a living, I was gonna have to come to New York.