I'm Just A Musician And A Record

Some Summers My Father Would Take Us Down To Visit Our Grandmother In Louisville, Who Was An Ex-slave, Susan Jones, And She Had A Shotgun Shack They Call It, And No Electricity, A Well In The Back, A Coal Stove, Kerosene Lamps.

You Want Your Parents To Say, "hey, I'm Proud Of You." When You Don't Hear That, You Learn To Compensate. You Say, "hell, I Don't Need Their Approval. If I Get My Music Right, I'll Have Everyone Else's Approval." I Didn't Understand It Then, But I Now Know That's What Happened To Me.

I Tell My Kids And I Tell Proteges, Always Have Humility When You Create And Grace When You Succeed, Because Its Not About You. You Are A Terminal For A Higher Power. As Soon As You Accept That, You Can Do It Forever.

Not One Ounce Of My Self Worth Depends On Your Acceptance Of Me.

You Can Study Orchestration, You Can Study Harmony And Theory And Everything Else, But Melodies Come Straight From God.