The tenor voice should be like sunshine.

God smiled on me in every sense. I was born a tenor, and you know what that means. Tenors are a rare commodity.

The Italians are not indulgent, as Americans are. They don't have the patience to teach young singers how to move. They think you should learn in school.

When you're insecure about your technique, you close yourself off. Your shoulders tighten. The first thing, you should open your body and sing. Be happy. Sing real vowels, real Italian vowels. When you're learning a good way to sing technically, you find it's very easy to sing well.

Sicily is a blessed land. First, because of its geographic position in the Mediterranean. Second, for its history and all the different peoples who have settled there: Arabs, Greeks, Normans, the Swedes. That has made us different from others. We exaggerate, we overdo. We love Greek tragedy. We cry, we fight, sometimes for nothing.

I'm a farmer with a mandolin and a high tenor voice.