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I've sung background for a couple of bands.

I do have musical background; I sing.

My drummer, bass player, and guitar player sing backgrounds. They play and sing. I can sing all the harmonies, but I can't do it alone.

Singing background has always been such a precious thing. I'm always going to be excited to sing behind an artist and learn from them.

Background singers who are any good have to be great imitators.

When I started making my own records, I had this idea of drowning out the singer and putting the rest in the foreground. It was the background that interested me.

All I want to do is sing on other people's records.

I think we did our first session in 1958. There were no black background singers - there were only white singers. They weren't even called background singers; they were just called singers. I don't know who gave us the name 'background singers,' but I think that came about when The Blossoms started doing background.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

And the thing that I always tried to do with important singers when I met them was to sit down and record everything they knew, give them a first real run-through of their art.