Biography

[observation, 2017 Years ago, we went into the studio with eight or ten people and created. That instilled discipline because you had to get it right the first time. Now you can keep going over a part until you get it just like you want it, but it's a little sterile. I'm still from the old school. I like the bodies in the studio so we can feed off each other.

I'm a people watcher. I'll go to a party and sit in the corner and watch the human factor take over. I write about life and things I think people can relate to. Other times, I just come up with an idea and construct a song.

[on touring in the early '60s] We caught a lot of flack, but we tore down a lot of barriers because we were a tight knit organization. If we stopped somewhere to have lunch and they would not accept blacks in the restaurant, none of us went in. We would go to little towns where it was horrible to even stop for gas. We set our parameters. Some cities wanted to have two performances for blacks and whites and we insisted on one performance for everybody. They would put the blacks upstairs and whites downstairs, but at least they were all in the same building.