When I was living in the projects, I had a mop stick for my horse. I wanted to be Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, so I would ride my mop through the projects.

Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, John Wayne - these men had the code of the West.

Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans - these people are giants, legends; their names are household words. Of course, so's Jell-O.

Don Was is a friend of mine; we've done projects together over the years.

When I'm singing, it's a mixture of my innocence in the projects, my mom and dad. It's all the good and the bad, the laughs and the frowns that I went through and seen other people go through. Then you be trying to write it. Whatever's coming out, you try and make it all cool.

Through the years, I found we had Native American blood in us. My great-grandmother came from the island of Martinique, and they hooked up with the Native Americans of Louisiana.