From '69 til '76, I never played in public. I would play by myself at home.

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

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.

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

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

From '69 til '76, I never played in public. I would play by myself at home.

My playing started to develop through the Miles Davis stuff I was listening to.