Whenever a woman would come too close, I would cut her off. Part of that was vindictive - but that was totally subconscious.

Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I'm needed by someone. As long as you have that, you're healthy.

We got into all the trouble you could ever imagine. We figured that if the Jones boys and all the gangsters ran Chicago, we had our own territory now. All the stores, all the crime, we were in charge of everything, my stepbrother and my brother.

You Make Your Mistakes To Learn How To Get To The Good Stuff

The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.

If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle.

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.