I was 12 in '55 when rock and roll hit. It just completely transformed me.

Meanwhile after failing the bar twice, I knew some people in New York and moved here in August '71.

I started off with the really funky stuff like Ramsey Lewis, Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell.

I saw Suicide in '74 and it was pretty horrifying.

I was coerced into taking piano lessons in the early '50s. It was a quite unpleasant experience.

It was just like Howlin' Wolf. Once you arrive at the point that you understand it, the emotional factor is darker than some of the saddest blues stuff.

By then I was in Brooklyn and drank my way through that summer. I stopped when I got sick of that and got a job at the Strand bookstore, which was a little better than the tax job.