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I wrote and produced millions and millions of selling records, so my publishing company alone was worth millions of dollars. I didn't have to work anymore in life because when the rappers started sampling... I'm the most sampled artist in history.

I was an artist - I fancied myself an artist - I sold paintings at bars to pay my rent.

My real life helped me sell a lot of records.

I had no idea that I could sustain a career as an artist. But, I loved music and wanted to be in the music business.

Honestly, a lot of people thought that I was on top of the world selling so many millions of records, and that this is the life that everybody would want, but I never got to enjoy any of my success.

If I was going to sell out, I would do it for more than 10,000 records.

I ended up writing songs and growing up in public with my songwriting. And it's a good thing for me back then: in the early '70s, there was a thing called artist development, where an artist could find his feet, find himself, find his voice. I think I made five or six albums before I sold five or six albums.

When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.

Ten million dollars after I'd become a star I was deeply in debt.

With my quick success, I didn't have time to learn the ropes of the music business. Because my first record was such a hit, I was terribly spoiled and I thought I couldn't do anything wrong. I was also desperate to make tons of money because of my responsibility to my daughter. And there was no longer any joy in making music.