The idea was I'd never amount to anything in music, The theme there was that I was talented, but I wouldn't work hard enough to do anything with it.

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

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

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

I started going to a piano teacher at 5 years old, but pretty soon I started picking things out on my own and stopped taking music lessons. I never could read music very well, but I've still been doing it.

A young man ain't nothin' in the world these days

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