When I was a young man, I shined the shoes of Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan! Music was just everywhere like that. And in my family, everyone could play something, and if they couldn't play, they could sing.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Music was always a big part of my family. Only a few of us had the talent - or the courage - to walk out on a stage.
All through my young life I wanted to sing, although nobody in my family knew it.
I always had a love of music, from the time I was a little kid, dressing up and singing along with Michael Jackson songs.
When I was a kid, there was so much talent outside of recorded music.
My mom was a dancer, my dad's a singer and I've always had that kind of music in my life.
I grew up with music in the house. I was told I could sing as soon as I started talking. Everybody in my family sang, always lots of records, blues and jazz and soul, R&B, you know, like Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Coltrane, that kind of thing.
Music was in the air when I was growing up. My siblings Katy, Dave and Phil were musical; my dad worked in inner-city New York where a musical revolution was taking place - folk music, rock n' roll, gospel music. My sister taught me to sing. My brothers taught me to play.
My mother was a singer, and both of her sisters were singers. There was always music around.
Growing up I played piano and I sang at a lot of weddings; I grew up in a very small town, a little coal-mining town in Virginia called Grundy. And my family was very sing-songy at home.
When I was younger, acting, singing, and dancing was what it was all about.