Of course that was my idol, Son House. I think he did a lot for the Mississippi slide down there.

I was always singing the way I felt, and maybe I didn't exactly know it, but I just didn't like the way things were down there-in Mississippi.

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.

The thing about San Francisco is that it has this kind of magical quality.

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.

I been in the blues all my life. I'm still delivering 'cause I got a long memory.