I feel like before I came to the planet I asked God for the gift of music. I didn't want to come here without the gift of music and God granted it to me.

I wanted to be Jimi Hendrix's drummer when I was in high school, but I graduated in 1970, the year he died.

White people couldn't do black music back in the day because they weren't funky or bad enough. They weren't from the ghettoes, but hip-hop and R&B changed all of that because white kids want to be down with it. They wanted to learn it so they studied the culture. It's kind of a cool thing because we shouldn't be so separate.

To be a superstar is incredible pressure. And also in our country, I'm going to speak about this, America. We have a way of kind of making it hard on our superstars. I don't sense it when I go to Europe or I go to Japan.

I think it's artist's role to give and to receive and the people to give it, hear it, vibe on it, and give it back around again.

I feel like before I came to the planet I asked God for the gift of music. I didn't want to come here without the gift of music and God granted it to me.

I'm very proud of my love for Whitney Houston. She really changed my life. She made my life a better life. She was so beautiful in her love for God, her love for her family and her love for music. She truly loved her music. She could do everything! She had flawless rhythm, flawless pitch, flawless feeling, and flawless beauty.