Particularly with the blues, it's not just about bad times. It's about the healing spirit.

I didn't want to fall into the trap of complacency.

I'm old enough to chew my peas and corn without choking.

I don't care if it's somebody else's song. Most of the time, you'll find that I'll put my own stamp on it. But I started writing more because, you know, it's easy to regurgitate what somebody else is doing, but it's exciting to be able to come up with your own writing.

The blues is played everywhere. There's no place I've been where they don't have blues or aren't interested in blues.

I was always looking for evidence of these common musical roots, but I was too young to know that what I was doing was called ethnomusicology.