I just start playing music and eventually I sing something, a line of a verse or a B section or a line of a chorus, and the line that I end up singing is related to the music I'm playing, if that makes any sense. And I go from there.

The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

They all always start as an acoustic, living room chorus-and-verse kind of idea.

We've got to practice three weeks, get the kinks out, then we've got to practice three weeks with the crew, and then go out for four months. It's just a huge chunk of time out of life.

This is my ninth year to sing with the chorus. I joined after I retired and I certainly enjoy singing with them. Our average age is 72 and we have a great time together. We practice each Thursday from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Our performances begin around the middle of April.

So we started singing, and eventually we began to think we had something special. I thought we could sing as well as The Golden Gate Quartet, and if they could go out in the world and do it, well, so could we.