For me, the highlight was meeting all the Motown acts, as I adore black soul music. I met Stevie Wonder who I love, and Diana Ross And The Supremes. I also met The Carpenters. I was actually there in the studio when they recorded We've Only Just Begun.
With the '60s era and Motown, my grandparents actually introduced us to that when I was younger, so I grew up listening to the Jackson Five, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, The Supremes and Diana Ross' solo stuff. I just loved it.
Even before coming into the industry, I was a big fan of Motown, the Jackson 5, Gladys Knight, the Temptations, Diana Ross and The Supremes.
When I was growing up, my dad would always be playing Motown around the house. He loved Stevie Wonder and the Supremes and got me into Dionne Warwick. It was the best music I'd ever heard. It was just that extremely deep, human, thought-out stream of ideas. You can always hear something new when you listen to that music.
Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross and the Jackson 5, that's what I grew up on.
There were many stars in Motown's firmament - among them, Stevie, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves and Diana Ross - but I happen to have loved the Four Tops most of all.
One of the only things I've regretted was saying yes to a TV special, 'Motown Mania,' and I said I'll sing you a Diana Ross song. It was just naff.
I've met a lot of famous people that I just thought were so unbelievable. For me, meeting Julie Andrews was probably the highlight of my life.
I grew up at this incredibly odd intersection in Los Angeles, where it felt like the black 'hood met black elegance met white gentrification met Latin culture met wetlands.
When I joined, I was one of the first artists to sign on to the Motown West label when they opened their first studio in California. At the studio, you'd run into Stevie Wonder, you'd run into Marvin Gaye…it was very special.
My mum used to listen to Motown. Diana Ross was my first singing teacher, really. I'd just sing along all the time.
I have met a couple of six-year-olds who were apparently quite excited to meet me - before they actually met me. And when they actually met me they ran behind their parents' legs and cowered for shelter.
I would love to do a biopic of a famous singer, like Diana Ross or Donna Summer, or an old jazz story that we haven't seen before. I would love to do that! I would love to play Diana Ross 'cause she's an icon. I'm salivating to do that.
John Kerry and Ralph Nader met face-to-face, it was a historic meeting. Astronomers said today their meeting actually created what is called a 'charisma black hole.'
No I.D. is actually married to my cousin, and my cousin is my manager. So I met him when she met him many years ago. I was in the studio and he hooked me up with a bunch of producers that he knew.
When we talk about my music, it's a cross between Tina Turner, Alanis Morrisette, and Diana Ross. It's the glamour and the showiness of Diana Ross; the ferociousness and pain of Tina Turner; and the vocals of Alanis.
Listen to the late Isaac Hayes covering 'Walk on By' by Burt Bacharach or Mayfield singing The Carpenters' vanilla-seeming 'We've Only Just Begun,' and you realize soul's insistence on transformation: Mayfield in particular makes the song not just about love but the start of revolution.