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Doo-wop is special music to me because it's so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

Doo-wop is the true music to me, man. Doo-wop was what nurtured me and grew me into who I am, and I guess even when I was in school, the teacher probably thought I had ADD or something every day, because I'd be beating on the desks, singing like the Flamingos or the Spaniels or Clyde McPhatter or somebody.

I've always loved soul, R&B, doo-wop and blues, and I've wanted to make a record like that for years.

I even done a doo-wop version of the Mickey Mouse march.

I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.

I've always recorded the same way. I put down as many ideas as I have, then strip them away at the mixdown. It's better to have too much music than not enough.

The joy about the recording is that you are your own boss. You don't have a director telling you how to do it.

My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops.

My brother Art was a doo-wopper. He had a group that sat out on a park bench in New Orleans and sang harmonies at night, and they'd go around and win all the talent shows and get all the girls, you know.