I have to remember that no matter how often I perform, there are certain songs that the audience truly wants to hear, and even though I’ve sung it 100,000 times, it may be their first time hearing them.
I used to stay up all night, roam around, drink, and carry on like everybody else. That all changed when I got older, started to exercise and play golf. I knew by the time the day was over I would not feel like exercising, so I made it a point to exercise early.
The thing that means most to me is the joy that my mom and my dad got because of my career… They raised seven children on domestic wages, in a city like San Francisco, and did nothing but work, work, work.
I really, really enjoy music and that’s why I do what I do.
My mom and dad always tried to make Christmas special for us. We were poor, but it’s funny because we had no idea.
I’m known for mushy music.
Every performer has a little gem, a little pearl they have done that nobody pays much attention to. And then one day, somebody does recognize it, which is so gratifying.
It doesn’t mean a thing when others tell you you’re good. You have to feel it yourself.
Nat was my hero right from the very beginning. My dad brought his music into the house and played it over and over again.
I drank too much, only champagne.
I decided right away that whomever was going to advise me had to be fundamentally interested in music. This protected me from the skullduggery common to the music industry then and that still exists today. Of course, using this method meant that some things we didn’t know and just had to learn how to do it together.
When I was a kid, I had to try a lot of pyrotechnics just so people would know who I was.
I’ve had several unavoidable problems because of my athletic career.
When you do interviews, you have to talk about yourself – and I like to find out about other people. I am so familiar with everything that I do. I’ve said it over and over again. I think it is boring.
As a child, all I knew was that people kept asking me to sing, and because I liked to please, I would sing. It wasn’t until my dad told me that my singing made him happy that I began to think my voice might be good.
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