I felt a little uncomfortable because, when I went in to the military, I was the main male vocalist they had and when I came out they had like two or three vocalists. Otis came in when I was in the military, too.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I gathered that those two Big-shot Boys, Joe + Fletcher, just was afraid to let me sing, thinking maybe I'd sort of ruin their reputations with their musical public. They not knowing that I had been singing all of my life. In churches, etc. I had one of the finest All Boys Quartets that ever walked the streets of New Orleans.
My dad and grandpa were in the army and as a country singer you're constantly playing at military bases all across the country and meeting soldiers and their families and hearing their stories.
Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys' choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I enjoyed the singing very much.
I was very young at the time, and I mainly appreciated their vocal qualities, even though I was already living as they did - as black performers in a white world.
I enjoyed every minute of what I was doing with sessions, because The Blossoms, the group that I was singing with, they were the first black background singers. There weren't any.
I learned so many roles so quickly as a young singer, I thought it was time to come back to them and make them better - deeper, more nuanced.
When I joined the music scene, a lot of big-ticket singers were not getting good work... It was a lean phase.
In my vocal, I think you can hear something of my earlier times when I'd sing in subway halls for the echo and perform doo-wop on street corners. But I had a lot of influences, too - singers like Sam Cooke, Brook Benton and Roy Hamilton.
I didn't even respect singers until I heard Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.
I was just a music lover who wondered what it would sound like if Otis Redding strapped on a guitar and played in a punk band. That's it.