I was already playing the clarinet and the piano. My father's a piano player. But I wanted to play in a funk band, and the clarinet wasn't fit. So you was Hey, man, can I sit in? They're like, No, man. So I started fooling around with the bass.

Luther Vandross was a musician who sang. So after a while he was also the number one background singer in New York, so he would sing for Bette Midler, he sang on Fame, he sang for David Bowie, he sang for - whoever needed backgrounds, he would arrange the parts and hook your record up. He also sang on commercials. McDonald's, Budweiser.

Where Miles Davis can make you feel things.That's what I'm looking for from young guys. I'm looking for somebody who not just has a command of the instrument, but can actually say something to make you feel something, make you think about something.

It happened to be, from '73 to '78, the five years that, our most glorious years for bass players. We had Larry Graham, with his own band, Stanley Clarke with his own band. We have Bootsy doing his thing. We had Jaco Pastorius. They were all leading their own bands.

It's a great thing about being a musician you don't stop until the day you die, you can improve. So it's a wonderful thing to do.

I got so many emails and text messages, my phone blew up because it couldn't handle everybody. It's like almost being at your own funeral because of the way the headline read.