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I sang for my family. And I think probably the first time I sang and got paid for it, I was about 6 or 7.

I gave my last concert in 1976. For 32 years, I had given everything I had. I wanted to stop. My last big debut was in Russia in 1973. After I retired, I didn't have to worry about going out in bad weather. I could stay up late.

For three years, between 16 and 19, I was the opening-act-for-the-opening-act-for-the-opening-act, you know? And then I was on tour with Ice-T, Stetsasonic, EPMD, Sir Mix-a-Lot - legends - and went on to sell 160 million records. It still baffles me.

I've had money thrown onstage, dollars, couple of five-dollar bills. I took the money, but it wasn't much.

I did all the musicals in my high school; I was in a pop group signed to Cash Money Records in college. Music has always been a really big part of my life.

I got into the studio when I was thirteen. At the age of twelve I was doing public performances.

First paying gig, I got 20 bucks. I played at some really weird venue. I don't remember the venue; I just remember it was the last stop on the A train. It was, like, the Far Rockaways, Queens, and it was an audience of, like, three people.

I was a street performer for two years.

My first paying gig was a play called 'The Voice of the Prairie' at a theater that no longer exists in Chicago called Wisdom Bridge. I played a fast-talking radio huckster - a salesman of crystal sets in the 1920s - and I actually won an award. Look at that! And then promptly didn't get hired for a year.