Barbara and I wanted to do a television special, and she put it together with T Bone Burnett, and they came up with the idea of it being black and white. It was fabulous; we had a great time. It was wonderful.
I learned my first songs when I was six and seven, and when I was eight years old, I won a local talent show.
I always felt each instrumental and vocal inflection had to be special... I'd spend almost as much time on those as I'd spend on the song itself.
Looking back on it now, I felt that I was blessed much like the masters, I guess - the guys who wrote the concertos.
I started using sunglasses in Alabama. I was going to do a show with Patsy Cline and Bobby Vee, and I left my clear glasses on the plane. I only had the sunshades, and I was quite embarrassed to go onstage with them, but I did it.
I was stuck with the dark glasses. They took all these pictures that went around the world. I guess once you become successful, you don't want to change anything too drastically.
