My Children Come First And The Career

It Seems Like I Don't Have A Lot Of Time For All The Things I Need To Do. I'm Spreading Myself Fairly Thin. I Have Responsibilities To My Children. I Have A Big Staff That Works For Me. And When You Have A Staff, And I'm Sure You Know This, You're Always Concerned With Everybody's Life All The Time.

I'm From A Singing Family, But They're Not Professional Singers, Only Gospel - My Grandfather Was A Minister. I Started To Sing The Music That Was Out Then Because My Mother Used To Play It All The Time. It Was The End Of The '50s, The Beginning Of The '60s. There Was Frankie Lyman And The Teenagers, Etta James... We Used To Sit Outside On The Stoop And Sing. We Even Used To Put Our Radios And Record Players Outside.

So Every Time I Make A New Circuit, A New Time Around, Then I Change The Show. You Can't Change The Songs; People Still Want To Hear "lady Sings The Blues" And They Still Want To Hear Some Of The Oldies.

A Reporter Once Asked Me If I Ever Cried. I Wonder If People Think I'm Just As Hard As A Rock And Have No Emotions At All.

I Don't Have To Sit Around And Wait For The Next Movie To Come Along, I Can Go Out And Sing.