I never build myself us. I let the people do that. I'm the most laid-back person, and I let them build me up. If you ask me, I say, 'I''m just a guy playin' some blues.
I grew up in an apartment my whole life. It was just me, my mom, and my brother - she supported us. And we've always liked driving through rich neighborhoods, especially around Christmas. We would always admire the wealth. I always had this strange feeling with it.
It's pretty difficult to promote something the week after Christmas and the week before New Year's.
I've always liked acoustic blues. I liked Bob Dylan a lot.
I always liked jazz. And my people liked the old blues, race records and the doo-wop and all that.
I think the blues is fine for blues players, but free blues has never made much sense to me.
When you give up yourself, that's when you will feel the true spirit of Christmas. And that's giving that's serving others and that's when you feel Which Christmas is the most vivid to me? It's always the next Christmas.
There are happy blues, sad blues, lonesome blues, red-hot blues, mad blues, and loving blues. Blues is a testimony to the fullness of life.
My Christmas wish would be to have an entire week off. To spend it with my family and just curl up and watch Christmas movies when it's snowing outside.
When I learned to play music, I was listening to blues music. And all the blues music I liked was super simple and stripped down. And then all the hip hop I liked was super simple and stripped down and we always heard that connection.
For me and MTV, it was always the MTV year-end countdowns. It was what I'd look forward to honestly every year just as much as Christmas. When Christmas was over, the top 100 videos of the year would lead up to the ball drop.
More and more people each year are going abroad for Christmas ... Fed up with the fact that commercial Christmas starts in October. Fed up with carols. Dreading the arrival of Christmas cards from people they have forgotten to send a card to. Unable to bear yet another family get-together with Auntie Mary puking up in the corner after sampling too much of the punch. You see in the airports the triumphant glitter in the eyes of people who are leaving it all behind, including the hundredth rerun of Miracle on 34th Street.
Before, there were only four pay per views throughout the whole year. Guys who were doing soap opera storylines could build them up week after week. We had longevity, and that is one of the main reasons why people remember.
It may be a cliche, but it's true - the build-up to Christmas is so much more pleasurable than the actual day itself.
The whole of life itself expresses the blues. That's why I always say the blues are the true facts of life expressed in words and song, inspiration, feeling and understanding. The blues can be about anything pertaining to the facts of life. The blues call on God as much as a spiritual song do.
One Christmas build-up tradition, however, has totally bypassed me - that of going up to town and 'doing a show.'