When you're a kid, you get all these rules and regulations coming down on your head. You've got a need to be recognized. But as time goes by, this stuff, if it remains, can kill you. The attitude alone can't sustain anyone forever.

I don't sing white; I don't sing black - I sing Bronx. When I sing 'Ruby Baby,' I'm rolling like Jimmy Reed. I wanted to communicate like Hank Williams and groove like Jimmy Reed.

It was a lot of fun in the back of that bus with Ritchie Valens, Buddy and The Big Bopper sharing each other's songs.

While Paul Simon is revered, I don't think people get how deep he is. I love the guy. He comes from that early street-harmony, first-generation type of rock and rollers. He gets it.

In New York, if you go into an Italian-American neighbourhood, the code of the streets is respect and reputation.