It's like we're suffering from an identity crisis, and that identity is in our arts and the fact that we don't find it chief amongst our agendas to teach our kids who we are as a nation and the battles we've had on this ground and how they've been successfully resolved. We can't enjoy the fruits of the labor of our ancestors.

I believed in studying just because I knew education was a privilege. It was the discipline of study, to get into the habit of doing something that you don't want to do.

I play piano and drums very poorly and French horn and tuba all equally as bad.

We're blues people. And blues never lets tragedy have the last word.

I'm just lucky to have the type of friends and musicians and people dedicated to my music that I do.

My thing is, once you start to put a backbeat on your music or something that has a machine in it, you have popularity, but you lose the flexibility. And you lose a richness.

My older brother and myself always played together in bands, but we never knew we would be professional musicians.