I've done the Kennedy Center many times. I've sang for Marian Anderson. I've sang for Marion Williams. I've sang for Lionel Hampton.

It really is an honor if I can be inspirational to a younger singer or person. It means I've done my job.

You cannot define a person on just one thing. You can't just forget all these wonderful and good things that a person has done because one thing didn't come off the way you thought it should come off.

I think you have a lot of really good artists today. You have your Beyonce, Usher, Nicki Minaj and the like. But our generation, the artists were stronger. You're talking about myself, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, The Four Tops.

Politics are not my arena. Music is.

Music changes, and I'm gonna change right along with it.