I've only been on MTV once as one of their 'Closet Classics,' with some bootleg footage of a 1970 tour I did in Holland. They didn't know what to make of my music, but they finally invented a name for it - world beat music.

My mother was American, and my father was from the Caribbean, and there was a big open door into the world of humanity and music.

Very old music is, like, 11th century in my mind. That's very old.

More and more people are finally realizing that in the heart of America, there's all this incredible music that wasn't widely heard before because it wasn't in the interest of those who feel they have to control the taste of the wider public.

Music is like the soul of the planet.

I wanted to keep pushing the musical ideas I had about jazz, music from Africa and the Caribbean.