"I was so enamored with the idea of being in show business so everything was bright to me. I mean, I didn't think of it as being tough and things like that."

"Bud Johnson, God rest his soul of fame, a tenor saxophonist. Bud was always a big, big, big booster of mine and he always when I first met Bud in Pittsburgh when he came through there, he heard me sing and he wanted me to come to Chicago."

"It was my band. I organized the band and Dizzy was in the band. Dizzy was the first musical director with the band. Charlie Parker was in the band. But, no, no, that was my band."

"I think a song that's got something to say. I'm not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don't last. But I like a song that tells a story and has some meat to it, you know, that means something."

"Beauty in art is the harmony of spirit, intellect, and craft. In this truth lies the bedrock of all virtue — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"You know I want to sing for people, I want to jazz people up I want to make new music that they've never heard."

"The audiences are there as a result of my history with the band but also as a result of my being able to reach people with a tune."

"I have actual dreams of Bruce Springsteen calling me up on stage to wear a bandanna and play rhythm guitar next to Little Steven."