I hate to see him die that way. It didn't have to happen that way.

We blues singers are condemned. But I let them know this: If what I'm singing sends me to hell, I don't know how to get to heaven because I ain't lying. It's in your heart, and it's what you feel.

If somebody sings, 'Baby I'll fly to the moon for you, I'll bring the stars down,' that's a damn lie. I sing about the events of the world as it's going today. It's more like gospel than anything else.

It's been good to me, and I had no desire to change. It's been lower than the dirt on the ground, but it bounced back, and it's going to keep doing it because it's original. It's the only music that was born in America. Everybody else brought theirs with them.

I think (his father) was his reason for going after the music. When he was younger, he was going after it with all the gusto he could put into it.

I hate liberality - nine times out of ten it is cowardice, and the tenth time lack of principle