I'm not going to sing something if it doesn't make sense to me, or if it makes me look like I'm begging someone or I'm weak, because that's not me.

My goal for these next few years, for the next forever, is to try and keep positive things around me. If somebody is coming at me with negative stuff, just back away from me.

Everything I've done and everything I've gained in my life has been with my music.

Youth. The fact that, in the mid-'90s, guys like Lee Fields gave me and all these young people the chance to do backup. I was in my 30s, but some of those guys were still teenagers. Others were 22 and 23 - babies, all of them.

Music is my happiness, my joy, and when my body wasn't right I couldn't get into my music without being healed, without being healthy.

I'm blessed to be in an environment where people are sincere.

I'm going to dress a little different. Those frilly dresses I used to wear on stage, that was the old me.