All My Gowns Have Trains On Them.

Instead Of Looking At The Past, I Put Myself Ahead Twenty Years And Try To Look At What I Need To Do Now In Order To Get There Then.

I'm From A Singing Family, But They're Not Professional Singers, Only Gospel - My Grandfather Was A Minister. I Started To Sing The Music That Was Out Then Because My Mother Used To Play It All The Time. It Was The End Of The '50s, The Beginning Of The '60s. There Was Frankie Lyman And The Teenagers, Etta James... We Used To Sit Outside On The Stoop And Sing. We Even Used To Put Our Radios And Record Players Outside.

I Don't Think Getting In And Out Of A Limousine Has Anything To Do With Being An Icon.

The Only Recording Studio Was In Motown - It Was Called Tamla/motown At That Time And We Used To Audition There Because Smokey Robinson Was At That Studio And Berry Gordy Was The President. I Remember Asking Smokey To Listen To My Group And He Did. For The First Couple Of Years We Were Just Singing Background. We Used To Back Up Marvin Gaye; Mary Wells Was There Then, Marv Johnson, The Marvelettes, Martha Reeves And The Vandellas, Junior Walker And The All-stars.

I Spend Too Much Money On My Sets And My Gowns. I Think The Presentation Is Important. I Don't Think People Want To See The Old Show All The Time.