We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn't dance, they listened.

But, when I was about thirteen, I began to sort of sing in my neighborhood.

I didn't do drugs, I never did do drugs. Never. I don't have any story of drugs, you know, to speak of. Never did drugs, never was interested in drugs and then I wasn't interested in the people around the drugs.

There was a lot of stuff happening in Havana that was being heard and appreciated by New Orleans musicians because of this situation. And vice versa.

And, he'd seen me in Panama, and he talked about maybe doing something in New York so I hooked it up when I came here and I recorded in 1969 my first album with Pete Rodriguez.

Rock is young music, it is youth oriented. It just speaks for a generation.

Anywhere you had a commerce center, you had a lot of music.