So I wanted to sing inspirational music, and that's exactly how I approached it - only the words have been changed to declare my relationship with God.

Originally I was not writing songs for myself

One thing I can say about the Motown acts is that we were a family. That's not a myth

Motown will always be a heavy-duty part of my life because those are my roots

I don't ever balk at being considered a Motown person, because Motown is the greatest musical event that ever happened in the history of music

I know what God did for me. I know that He is my way out and my way in. He's my way out of all this havoc and my way into paradise. He suffered for me and for everybody listening. God loves us so much. He tried a lot of things to get our attention. He tried a lot of things to get us back to Him. So He said, "I'll tell you what. I'm going to make it real simple for you. I'm going to send my Son. He's going to take on all your iniquities and all your sins. He's gonna die in your place so you can have everlasting life. All you've got to do is accept that.

Without you hearing a melody or music or anything like that, it would say something to you. So, that's what a song is to me. Now, you have a lot of songs that come out, and the beat carries them over there, because of the beat, and because of some other factors and so on and so forth. But I want mine to be a song, if you read it, it's going to mean something to you.