I've heard stories of pickup bands that can't follow, but here's the thing: If you want to play with Chuck Berry, you listen to his greatest hits and learn the format of the songs, but don't try to play it note-for-note.

Rock 'n' roll was uniting black kids and white kids, and rock 'n' roll is not being given credit... for being just as important to the civil rights movement as the activists.

In my band, I'm the band leader. As a band leader, our job is to bring harmony to the voices we have on stage.

I'm always thinking 'how can I blend something?' whether it's musical instruments, voices, or the people around me.

I don't have any brothers and sisters, so I always relied on my parents to guide me or answer questions.

It doesn't sound rational for a Klansman to sit down to dinner with a black man. What you're overlooking is, to be racist is to be irrational. So, they are already irrational, and irrational people do irrational things. That's why a Klansman will sit down with me.

He spoke nine languages. You know some people can just pick up an instrument and play. My father was like that with languages.

There's no more denying it, or saying we live in a post-racist society. All you have to do is turn on the TV and see all these hate crimes.

Venues had segregated seating - but when Chuck Berry fused together blues, boogie-woogie and country music, it caused people not to be able to sit still. They bounced up out of their seats, knocking over ropes, dancing together.

Everybody likes music. And rock 'n' roll - that was the music that brought white youth and black youth together for the first time in American music history.

I had to keep myself in check. Like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa.' I'd never sat in a room, five feet away from a Klansman putting on his damn robe. That's what freaked me out a little bit. But I wanted to see a Klansman.

You don't change the system without changing the people behind the system.

I've been playing music professionally, full time since 1980 when I graduated college at the age of 22.

When was 'again?' Was it back when I was drinking from a separate water fountain? Was it when I couldn't eat in that restaurant over there?... 'Make America Great Again' - before I had equality?

You cannot hate the hate out of a person. You cannot beat the hate out of a person. But you can love it out of a person.

I respect someone's right to air their views whether they are wrong or right.

If you don't keep hatred in check it will breed destruction.

Music is indeed the universal language and unites people.

In most of my encounters with Klan members, we would discuss reasons for why they were members in the first place.

When you make friends with me, you have a friend for life.

What we do too much of is, we talk about each other, we talk at each other, or we talk past each other. I have found that talking with each other is much more effective.

When something bothers me, I try to learn about it.

If you have an adversary, an opponent with an opposing point of view, give that person a platform, regardless of how extreme it may be.

Music is my profession but learning more about racism on all sides of the tracks was my obsession.