I learned some chords and I started watching anybody I could, once I really got into it.

One of the first groups we signed was the Fifth Dimension.

The first time I went to New York, I met Alan Freed.

I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.

I'd gone through periods where I didn't work live performances for probably seven or eight months at a time.

The web site and the Internet are a whole new ball game.

After that initial success, every chance we got we'd hire that remote recording truck and just record stuff at the Whisky because it was so inexpensive.

I was working at this club in downtown L.A. from four to eight at night, just Eddie Rubin, the drummer, and I.

I think my favorite album was probably Realization.

My first really good guitar was a Gibson J-45.

What I really remember is that people camped out everywhere, and the fact everybody expected it might turn into a big nightmare with all sorts of hassles because back in those days everybody was smoking pot and taking acid.

I loved playing and I was actually working two jobs.

Alan's publishing company was in the Brill Building, and of course, the Brill Building was where all the songwriters hung out because that's where all the publishers were.

About two months into the Whisky, I borrowed some money and rented a remote recording truck.

The first amp I had back in the '50s was a small Fender.

I learned some chords and I started watching anybody I could, once I really got into it.

Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.

I've got a Fender Concert amp from the '60s, the one Joe Osborn used. He played his bass through it.

Even Woodstock turned out to be a disaster. Everybody was stuck in the mud and people got sick.

Jack and I usually get together and sit around in the afternoons and start throwing ideas around.

But I always loved songs with great lyrics.

One thing will lead to another and somebody will come up with a riff or a line or something we build from.

In early '57, I bought a Fender Telecaster.

I think after 1970 or so, after I sold Soul City, I took off for awhile and didn't do too many gigs.

In 1965, Gibson made the red one I use now, and a black one, which was the first black 335 they ever made.

When I came back to California in the early '60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.

I accepted an offer to do a concert for the reopening of the Mall of Memphis.

I think what makes me different from the average Joe is that I feel free to be myself and express myself in the way that I want. If that makes you mad, we're living in a world of dire straits. If anything, it makes you more sane.

You have to keep hobbies in L.A. Otherwise, it's sad.

In extreme situations, the entire universe becomes our foe; at such critical times, unity of mind and technique is essential - do not let your heart waver!

Regarding the Hall of Fame, when they decided I was going to be one of the possible candidates, when I heard that, I was so thrilled. You're always hoping for something like that.

I'm a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister. I'm a real person operating in the world. For me to discuss the most private thing feels wrong. It feels like I'm betraying myself and my children.

The world is a slightly better place for having improvisation in it than it was before. There's something about it that says something positive about the human spirit, that a bunch of people can get together and by following a few simple traffic rules can create art and can entertain an audience and can thrill and exalt each other.

In some ways, I've always approached singing as acting, and the voice is just like a way of carrying the song.

The incurably suspicious Arthur Lee, youngest brother of Richard Henry, was of opinion that what others termed 'errors' in the Constitution were a deliberate scheme to create an oligarchy.

Well, I just finished starring in a new episode of the new The Twilight Zone television series.

When I meet other parents and they're more 'mumsy' than I am - you know, I don't want to be 'mumsy,' but I'm like, 'Were you always like that or... what happened?'

Now I would go to London's Pudding Lane on 2 September 1666 and put out that little fire. I'd love to investigate the histories of a few of the buildings that burned for Restoration Home.

All people are equal it is not birth it is virtue alone that makes the difference.

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

Coming up in the Bay Area and being African American in a city that has a history of complex issues of violent crime, interaction with the police is always intense. That's something you have to learn. My mom taught me at a young age that if ever a cop stops you, you put your hands up and freeze - don't move.

Peace requires everyone to be in the circle - wholeness, inclusion.

My style is boho chic. I love that time period - the patterns, the prints, the people, the music, the vibe.

When you become successful in any type of life, there are people who are not contributing to the motion.

Toward the Palestinians, Israel can only give. But when dealing with the entire Arab world, Israel can get a lot.

To an Ohio boy, it represented world-weary Gallic shrugs and Gauloises cigarettes, existentialist thinkers in berets and Catherine Deneuve in nothing at all - French was the language of intellectual power and effortless sex appeal.

I didn't go to high school, so I don't have a high school experience. I was home-schooled during high school.

In-N-Out is incredible, but don't tell coach I've been going there. He would flip out and put some curse on me.

Let your minds be filled with the goal of being like the Lord, and you will crowd out depressing thoughts as you anxiously seek to know Him and do His will.