Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I'm a cereal lover. I could eat it in the morning, in the evening, and at night - I love Cheerios.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I was born with Kallmann syndrome. I have never complained about it, as I can't do anything to change it - and I wouldn't have acquired the voice that I have.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

As a singer, I've been criticized for sounding feminine. They say I don't belong in any category, male or female, pop or jazz. But early on, I saw my suffering as my salvation.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I've had statements made - 'Who in the heck wants to hear a 60-year-old singer?' That statement was made - it's disheartening, you know, because you say, 'Well, hey, why should a guy feel like that about it?'

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

Jeanie McCarthy is the love of my life. She's the only woman who really understands me, my music, and my heart. It took me a long time to find my soul mate, but thank God I found her before I moved to the other side of time.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I love show business. It's my life, honey, and I try to enjoy it.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

Earlier I had been in New York, which was my first time to New York, and I got booked in the Baby Grand up in Harlem there. I was booked there for a week; they kept me there for about a month. That's where Doc Pomus and myself became very close friends and start running together around town and what not.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I've taken regular gigs, I've worked in grocery stores, worked as a dishwasher, a porter in different places, all for survival. I don't feel bad about doing it. I wished I could have done better. And still do.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

There were times, I could say, later in the career, that I wished that my voice would be deeper for materials that I might've wanted to select to do. But that's the style of my voice. There's nothing I can do about the height of my voice. And so I learned to deal with it.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

If you're singing, you're telling a story. So to tell it and tell it right, that's it.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I project stronger. If you notice the old records - they're much lighter - vocally much lighter in sound than the records that I'm doing today.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I've learned that music is such a healer.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

As long as I could sing my songs, I wasn't as angry about what had happened, about being shoved back for this or shoved back for the other.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I'm a singer, and I never lost sight of that.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

There's times, in certain songs, that I might be in my own world, and who cares about who's out there, you know? You have a job to do, so you do that job of singing that song or telling that story because that's what you're doing.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

All I needed was the courage to be me. That courage took a lifetime to develop.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

When the gig ain't there, you still got to pay the rent. I learned that a long time ago.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

In show business, generally you don't retire. If you love it, that is, you're in it forever anyway.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I decided to sing again after settling in Newark in 1982. I had a burning desire to sing and lots of encouragement from my new wife, Earlene.

Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott

I was living in New York. Sometimes, our gang of musicians would go to Louis Armstrong's home and play records. It was a lesson, like going to school at night. Ella Fitzgerald was an inspiration, too, a unique artist. When you had an opportunity to be with people like them, you cherished it.