The world has made everything else and still it can't make peace. And the reason it can't make peace is because of the evil, ignorance and stupidity. I have songs that explain these facts. And that's the blues.

The blues has been the foundation of all other American music since the beginning.

I feel like the blues is actually some kind of documentary of the past and the present - and something to give people inspiration for the future.

I hadn't been exposed to music except in church. They used to have me singing a solo when I was five years old.

People have been brainwashed into believing that it's got to be down or it wouldn't be blues. But it's not so. It's got to be a fact or it wouldn't be blues.

A bad rendition of you is better than a good rendition of somebody else.

The whole of life itself expresses the blues. That's why I always say the blues are the true facts of life expressed in words and song, inspiration, feeling and understanding. The blues can be about anything pertaining to the facts of life. The blues call on God as much as a spiritual song do.