This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish. |
My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that. |
That's where it begins and ends for me and these songs were the ones that touched me the deepest. It was like I was laying hold of some part of me that I didn't even know was there until I let it out. |
You can't fake this music. You might be a great singer or a great musician but, in the need, that's got nothing to do with it. It's how you connect to the songs and to the history behind them. |
I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture. |
It's the same thing now. When I go onstage the young people scream and holler as much as the older generation. |
I figured I could do It's A Man's Man's Man's World, because I believe it's the truth. |
I sing the songs that people need to hear. |
But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage. |