Before being elected to Congress, I was a mayor, and it’s this perspective that makes me certain that Ed FitzGerald is the right kind of leader to get Ohio back on track.
I fantasised about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ – I loved it, and then I read everything J. D. Salinger had to offer. Then I was turned on to Kerouac, and his spontaneous prose, his stream of consciousness way of writing. I admired him so much, and I romanticised so much about the ’40s and ’50s.
People like Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Marlene Dietrich and Sammy Davis Jr. all walked me down this path of entertainment.
I also met, early on Ella Fitzgerald. Her songbooks are some of the most amazing bodies of work.
My background was always more soulful pop. I was named after Ella Fitzgerald, and when I was a kid, I was listening to Lauryn Hill, Etta James, Joss Stone. For me, it was always about the voice.
I am sometimes asked to name my favourite books. The list changes, depending on my mood, the year, tricks played by memory. I might mention novels by Nabokov and Calvino and Tolkien on one occasion, by Fitzgerald and Baldwin and E.B. White on another. Camus often features, as do Tolstoy, Borges, Morrison and Manto.
When I was young, I was a passionate reader of Sartre. I’ve read the American novelists, in particular the lost generation – Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dos Passos – especially Faulkner. Of the authors I read when I was young, he is one of the few who still means a lot to me.
Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis, and you have Umm Kulthum.
I am more into the old school guy than I am with the new school guys. I came in young and I had to pay my dues to be considered a vet. To be able to play for over 10 years at wide receiver, that’s why I like looking at the older guys like Larry Fitzgerald, Teddy Ginn Jr., Brian Hartline. That’s what I’m about.
The window in which it’s acceptable to listen to Ella Fitzgerald’s 1960 record ‘Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas’ is short, so I keep it in heavy rotation throughout the festive season.
I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.
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