I been getting good crowds. It only took 50 years.

My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden.

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.

[The producer told me:] "We can try one more record, and we'll see how that one does." Those records never did anything. My music never got mentioned. My color got mentioned.

Ever since the world ended, I don't go out as much

I haven't stopped and I don't plan on stoppin' any time soon.

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