If I want to take a particular form of blues somewhere else I have the equipment to do it but I never even thought of it.

My people have very subtle slang, inflections and ways of saying things that has little to do with words. If you're from the same place, you'll feel the jargon and know exactly what's happening. Same with any neighborhood cat. What he sees and hears and feels and lives makes him what he is. That's what blues is.

When I choose material for an album all these songs I grew up with pour into my head.

I'm just human, I have faults like anyone

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

Music is an art and art has its own rules. And one of them is that you must pay more attention to it than anything else in the world, if you are going to be true to yourself. And if you don't do it - and you are an artist - it punishes you.

I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.