I went to school, but they didn't give you too much schooling because just as soon as you was big enough, you get to working in the fields. I guess I was a big boy for my age.

I was messing around with the harmonica... but I was 13 before I got a real good note out of it.

I wanted to get out of Mississippi in the worst way. Go back? What I want to go back for?

My blues are so simple, but so few people can play it right

I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing.

Going to Chicago was like going out of the world.

I went to school, but they didn't give you too much schooling because just as soon as you was big enough, you get to working in the fields. I guess I was a big boy for my age.