Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I'd go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I'd sing and play.

Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway.

I used to play - when I first started trying to be professional, I disk jockey from 1949 to 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee, and I was quite popular there as a disk jockey.

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

I do talk about celebrity relationships like Kim Kardashian's. I like to find the humor in love.

One of the reasons I'm an interesting person to be married to is my intensely late-blooming self-awareness.

When I married Marjorie, along with her, I got this very large family and a bunch of family friends. It's a dynamic I've never been around. I've always been kind of a loner, and my attempts at domestic life failed miserably. So the family dynamic is a great thing.

I'm looking forward to sproglets but, as I'm the main breadwinner, I feel I ought to capitalise on my career for a bit longer. Mother keeps telling me I should go and freeze some eggs. Not terribly romantic, is it?