B. J. Thomas

Well, I need to do music.

I found getting born again helped me turn my life around.

I don't care if people know I'm spiritual, but I'm just a regular guy.

Really it has been a struggle to overcome some of the misconceptions that are put on you when you do something that has a religious connotation. I've been struggling to just erase the religious feeling about me.

I personally believe now that big gospel exposure and the books and things virtually ended my music career.

I knew all about religion all my life; it just never was real to me.

I can remember being a kid and listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night.

I've been married a long time, I've got grown children, and I love to play golf. So I guess I'm just a regular guy.

I've had a wonderful life, I've been a husband and a father who cherishes his children and now I'm a grandfather, and I'm motivated like all these teachers and preachers and mothers and fathers to help my kids grow up with character and self respect.

I was always used to singing whatever I liked. I never did pay much attention to what genre it was. Of course, we had the great examples of Ray Charles and Elvis Presley. They easily went back and forth between pop, R&B and gospel.

If my voice gets rough and tired after hours of recording, I just stop for an hour and eat a bite of something and come back.

I grew up in the city in Houston, Texas. We lived in three or four different places around Houston for most of my childhood. Probably like most people, I had happy times, and I had sad, difficult times. There were some dysfunctions in my family.

Most of us in this business, if not all, have a burning desire to perform and to sing and to do it somewhere.

I'd say I'm the most appreciative of 'Raindrops.' When I got it, I didn't realize what a career changer that would be, a real change of life.

I've probably had more hits in South America than I've had in North America.

Raindrops' is an American song.

Ever since the beginning I've tried to do positive music, even though it has meant a lot of struggles against record companies and producers.

I noticed as I was growing up, watching Jackie Wilson and Bobby Bland and those singers, that they seemed to believe wholly and completely in what they were singing. They used to call it 'soul' back when I was a kid, but I knew that it was important to believe in what you were singing.

When I perform live I hope the audience will leave with their heads lifted up.

I was attracted to music when I was very young. I got in my first band when I was 15, so that's all I've ever done.

My Dad was just a working man. He was a good man and he loved music.

When I do 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry,' I remember my dad. He was the one who asked me to sing it, so it's a song I'm doing for him every time I do it.

That's kind of one of the first cities where air conditioning kind of boomed was Houston. At one time, it was the most air-conditioned city in the United States.

Trying to raise my self-image caused me to do everything in excess and defeat my own purpose.

If you have the burning desire to do music, the live performance is one of the major parts.

I've only tried to record things that I really believe in and that I really feel.

Many people early on actually thought I was a black performer!

My idol was Jackie Wilson, and I toured with James Brown.

I have great fans, a great wife and three grandkids!

I've got lifetime memories tied to my songs; I never get tired of singing them. I don't blame you if you don't believe me, but I've never had that problem.

I always recorded my vocals live with the band. Usually we'd just start from scratch. After we chose whatever song we decided to record, we would learn it on the spot. Sometimes it might develop rather quickly; on other occasions it would take numerous takes to achieve the master. But it was always a natural progression.

Chips and the Memphis Boys truly deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were capable of doing any kind of music.

You had to be kind of versatile in the '60s. That's probably why I've always done different genres of music, because when I first started, Top 40 radio played all the genres on one station.

Memphis was a great city back when Elvis was alive. A very electric, fun place to be, especially if Elvis was in town.

I was a happy kid. I played a lot of baseball with my big brother, Jerry.

I've just always loved music. They tell me that I sang even when I was an infant.

I was a huge R&B enthusiast.

I grew up with the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, but when I was about 12 or 13, I fell in love with Jackie Wilson and Bobby Bland.

The greatest compliment a person could pay my music is to listen and sing along with it and think that he can sing just as good as me.

I try to give the soft pop sound a natural relaxed feeling.

There is a large section of people who think a Christian singer has to sing Christian songs all the time.

I'm not a Christian entertainer. I'm an entertainer who's Christian.

I think it's a really sad commentary when people who want to refer to themselves as quote-Christians-unquote would want to come out and hear someone just to boo them. That to me was always tough to deal with, and I just stopped making 100 percent gospel records.

I want my music to have a positive effect on people.

There have been highs and lows in my career. But everything to do with 'Raindrops' has virtually been perfect... I feel lucky and blessed to have that song.

My dad and his brothers were in the air conditioning business.

I've been very lucky.

If a song really moves me, if I think it's a good song, I can do it.

I'd been in the gospel business in the late '70s to the mid '80s, and I kind of left that situation. Then I would do whatever gospel thing I wanted to do in the context of what I would normally do.

Elvis never had any compunctions about doing gospel music. At the height of his initial breakthrough he was putting out gospel records.