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One of my reasons for living in California is its close proximity to Mexico. The Latin influence is in every corner of the community. My love of Spanish music hasn't wavered since the '50s. I could hear the blues voicing from the Flamanco families and I always dig for inspiration in Latin music.

My style of singing is very much Latin jazz meets Latin and a little bit of rhythm and blues. When I do ballads, my fans love it. They want to listen to my classics. They want to party.

First of all, the music that people call Latin or Spanish is really African. So Black people need to get the credit for that.

I love the dancing and the music from Latin cultures. I went to a Flamenco show in Spain once, and it completely took my breath away!

The roar of the crowd has always been the sweetest music. It's intoxicating.

My genre of music is very eclectic. I might play some Latin jazz, or just go into a spontaneous jazz thing. That's the thing about coming to one of my performances. Not every show is the same.

There's so much music going on in New Orleans.

My mother comes from the Dominican Republic, so I have the Latin side in me, and I grew up with Gypsies. But I like any kind of music as long as it's good music.

In my concerts, people love when I sing a Latin encore with guitar.

Oh man, I love what the South brings as far as the soul, and I really have noticed from even the early days of listening to OutKast and Goodie Mob that Atlanta and the South has a diverse sound to it. You have bounce music. You have soulful musicians. You have artists with vocals who try to do different things.