I've programmed myself musically to come up with love-feeling tracks that are romantic, sexy, but classy, all in one. And that's the challenge. Once I create that music, then the lyrical content starts to come - you know, the stories and things like that.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

I always preferred to hang out with the outcasts, 'cause they were cooler they had better taste in music, for one thing, I guess because they had more time to develop one with the lack of social interaction they had!

Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.

I would be a huge hypocrite if I didn't tell you that at one time in my life I thought the way that you made music was you got on a major label and you got famous.

We were raised in an Italian-American household, although we didn't speak Italian in the house. We were very proud of being Italian, and had Italian music, ate Italian food.

It's been a transformative period and I really wanted to make music from what I've experienced.

I've sung other people's music all my life.

I'm very inspired by past music.