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I'd like to do a pop album with an R and B influence. I definitely want to have those big ballads with the uptempo hits as well.

I tend to gravitate toward ballads and mid-tempo songs.

I have always been a sucker for ballads, but you have to be careful these days, you can't overload people.

The British ballads became a new kind of form in their hand. And out of them came the blues, a new kind of song of commentary and satire, a song form which, after all, has become the main musical form of the whole human species.

I think that ballads are always something where I can really become one with the audiance.

Maybe you could put it out there that I don't have a built-in dislike of ballads. That was kind of the reputation I had back in the Seventies. But I've come around. Ballads have become something of an acquired taste.

I just love ballads. I am obsessed with them, so I've written a lot of those. They just kind of touch on all the different types of emotions. Though, I think poppy, feel - good songs are underrated and not seen as artistic enough.

We just sang real simple songs in a simple way that got to people. We didn't try to tart them up with orchestral arrangements and all the stuff. We were all blues fanatics. We like R+B and blues and simple, gut-feeling music.

With the R&B, gospel feel that 'Sparkle' has, that opens the door for my fans to be more accepting of that sound and also for me to try it.

I feel like R&B as a genre has become a caricature of itself.