Offers for me to play dances, society parties, even churches, were now coming in regularly. For most dates I was paid the sum of one dollar per hour, and they always tipped me at the end of the night.

When Seymour saw me seated at the piano at that first rehearsal, he shouted: 'What's that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let's get started.'

Quite a few musicians came to our house. And my ma took me to hear many more, hoping to encourage in me a love of music. But she wouldn't consent to my having music lessons, for she feared I might end up as she had done - unable to play except from paper.

I have been tied up with music for about as long as I can remember. By the time I was four I was picking out little tunes my mother played on the reed organ in the living-room.

When I first moved out to L.A. to be an actor, this family knew that I was a pretty big athlete back in Texas, and they said, 'You can live in our house for free if you coach our kid in football, basketball, and lacrosse.' So I was coaching all these sports teams, and I got to live at this house in Bel Air - this nine-acre estate - for free.

My family is the most important thing in my life.

I come from a blue-collar family. My father worked at the American Can Company as a mechanic. He broke his back and was disabled, and the first memory I have of him is in the hospital. My mother was a working mother - she had two jobs. Everybody in the house had to help out.

I want to work with the big orchestras. I want to have a big family.