Since the beginning of my recording career in 1975, I have had a little difficulty because the pop stations think I'm a jazzer who doesn't have a feeling for pop, so it's hard to get my records played. Similarly, black urban radio doesn't understand that with my R&B roots, I am more than a jazz singer. So I get pigeonholed.
But in those days - in the mid-'50s, early '60s - there was less than 300 radio stations that were playing country music and a lot of that wasn't full time.
There are definitely times where I am listening to the radio, and I think, 'That would be awesome. I would love to sing that.' It's this weird karaoke fantasy that I might someday get to live out on the big screen.
As far as loneliness, I feel Los Angeles and its layout, having to drive everywhere - it is a lonely place. It's an isolated city in that respect because you're driving to places alone listening to the radio.
When I was young, I used to hear people say, 'He's a golden boy. Look at that guy. Can you imagine what he's going to be like when he grows up?' Well, I unfortunately bought into that. And I hadn't even found myself. Quite honestly, I was running from myself. But I knew how to work Top 40 radio.
It wasn't glamorous in my day. In the regions, reporters were seen as such low life that they didn't merit their name in the Radio Times. Now people are interested in being famous. I never gave it a thought.
About 25 years ago, I was in an apartment, and next door, they put on the radio, so I struck the wall with my fist, but they did not put the radio down. I took a tool and banged until I made a hole through the wall. It was like a comedy movie.
My older brother was into Creedence Clearwater Revival and ZZ Top, and my sister was into pop radio. So somewhere along the line, I got into Ozzy Osbourne, REO Speedwagon, Heart, Pat Benetar, Journey.
The secret of it is to read what you've got in front of you. Don't, if you suspect that something has a double meaning, don't pause. Don't put on a leery vocal expression if you know what I mean on radio. Don't sort of do anything other than read it.
It was a presidential election year, and as a member of a consortium of Ivy League radio stations, we participated in 'network' coverage of election night.
Some of our early work was two minutes twenty when it actually came out on vinyl, very, very, very short. Sometimes if you made a three-minute record they would make you do an edited version for radio, particularly in America.
Then I went to radio with Sinatra and I watched that disappear.
Calculus, the electrical battery, the telephone, the steam engine, the radio - all these groundbreaking innovations were hit upon by multiple inventors working in parallel with no knowledge of one another.
I went straight in. Fade in, one... whatever. He's playing the piano in the radio station.
I had this old wind-up phonograph when I was a kid, and I'd listen to records. And the radio.
I remember driving home one evening while they were reviewing the papers on the radio. One of the articles was about me separating from my wife. It's a weird thing to listen to a news report about the break-up of your marriage.
There are too many leaders anointed because they have a public voice - television, radio, or record, or whatever. That even includes myself. In the past, I'd say, 'Don't anoint me when you can anoint yourself.'
The more melodies and chord changes, the less good it is for the clubs, but the better it is for radio, because it makes it really emotional.
I'm obsessed with radio. It's a good start to Sunday morning.
Nirvana was pop. You can have distorted guitars and people say it's alternative, but you can't break out of pop music's constructs and still get extensive radio play and media coverage.
Radio has always been a niche business. Cable television has always been a niche business. Magazines have always been a niche business.
In those days, boxing was very glamorous and romantic. You listened to fights on the radio, and a good announcer made it seem like a contest between gladiators.
Demagoguery sells. And therefore, radio stations will put it on. But that doesn't mean that you can't do something else and also make it sell.
I was an avid radio fan when I was a boy, as well as a great lover of comic strips.
People in America, when listening to radio, like to lean forward. People in Britain like to lean back.
That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.
Toting around a full orchestra on tour is very ambitious. I would consider doing a show now and then, like do a show at Radio City or Carnegie Hall with a full orchestra.
I would recommend that anyone who wants to do comedy on TV to do radio first.
I turned popular music on the radio, and I never listened to it again after that, in about 1985. That's when I switched over to classical music, and I pretty much stayed with that since then.
Well, yeah, I sang to some songs on the radio or in the shower.
I'm not shy, exactly, but I am private. I don't like to talk about myself. I had to learn - I was interviewed for print, radio and even TV.
As a really young child, I was listening to the echoes of the age before, music hall and stuff like that, as well as classical bits on the radio.
We're more into expressing ourselves than making radio hits.
If the choice is between doing something supercool and having no one hear it and doing something equally cool and tricking people into putting it on the radio, I don't think the second option is some big sellout.
We now assume that when people turn on the evening news, they basically already know what the news is. They've heard it on the radio. They've seen it on the Internet. They've seen it on one of the cable companies. So that makes our job a bit different.
You go to Miami, and you might only hear one Tyga song on the radio. You go to L.A., and you might hear six or seven on the radio. There's certain things you do for your city.