I've seen many great performers on stage, from Dean Martin to Celine Dion, but nothing beats the first time I saw Elvis. There was no pomp, no pyrotechnics, nothing to distract you from the raw talent of the man in the white jumpsuit.
I was working with a great actress - a superior artist in every way - and she really liked Celine Dion. I tried very hard, but I couldn't understand it. I just can't listen to Celine Dion! So I guess music is a deal breaker.
My mom and I love Celine Dion. She was my first concert ever. Then I saw Titanic' when I was really young and at my grade three talent show, I sang 'My Heart Will Go On.'
When I played Dean Martin, he was dead when we made the movie but there would have been nothing better than to spend a week with Dean Martin if I could have.
My closet CD that I don't admit that I really listen to is Celine Dion. My husband's sister passed away in a car accident, and she was a huge Celine Dion fan. 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' was her favorite song, so that's kind of my guilty pleasure.
The thing is, I've gotten massages to Enya. I like Enya. If you ate fantastic steaks to Celine Dion, you'd like Celine Dion.
The first time I saw my father, he was chained. Gone was the mirage of the invincible man, the man who would protect me once I found him. At the age of 12, I finally saw my father - in an orange jumpsuit, looking weak and vulnerable.
I'm so famous, people expect me to sell as many records as Celine Dion or Puff Daddy.
The man who became a big influence in my life was Dean Martin. He started my career in Las Vegas. When I came to Las Vegas, he put his name on the marquee: 'Dean Martin presents Engelbert Humperdinck.' And I'm the only one he ever did that for.
I've seen so much. And I've heard so many great performers. There are performers now that couldn't work back in the days when I came along.
The very first time I was on a car in Atlanta, I saw the conductor - all conductors are white - ask a Negro woman to get up and take a seat farther back in order to make a place for a white man. I have also seen white men requested to leave the Negro section of the car.
Dean Martin's great-great-uncle, Ebenezer Martin, who said to Eli Whitney, I see the cotton, but where's the gin? Never got a dinner!
I saw Elvis live in '54. It was at the Big D Jamboree in Dallas and the first thing, he came out and spit on the stage...it affected me exactly the same way as when I first saw that David Lynch film. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it to.
When I was in my formative years, I rejected Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and Dean Martin. I now realise they were all great artists, but at the time, as a young man, you have to clear the decks.
[Dean Martin] is an absolute, unqualified drunk. And if we ever develop an Olympic drinking team, he's gonna be the coach... Dean Martin has been stoned more often than the United States embassies.
Tonight, I would like to pay tribute to the greatest entertainer of all time, Mr. Elvis Presley. Elvis was Las Vegas. And if it wasn't for him, so many performers like myself would not have the chance to do what we do in this town. He really was the king.
No, we are not anti-white. But we don't have time for the white man. The white man is on top already, the white man is the boss already ... He has first-class citizenship already. So you are wasting your time talking to the white man. We are working on our own people.