Aaron Neville
I buried Joel on our 48th anniversary. I had been with her since I was 16.Collection: Anniversary
Me and my partners had been stealing cars for a while.Collection: Car
I really like listening to music in my car.Collection: Car
'Yellow Moon' was a poem. My wife at the time, Joel - she's dead now - it was our 25th anniversary. She had the chance to go on a cruise with her sister. And I'm home with the kids and looking up, and I saw the big moon, and I just started writing.Collection: Anniversary
I'll be singing with The Blind Boys of Alabama, which is a great joy to me. I've done some work with them before, and they truly are amazing.Collection: Amazing
Every morning I wake up and thank God.Collection: God
I was raised Catholic, but my father's people were Methodist, so we went to both churches.Collection: Religion
So now I have a collection of poetry by Aaron Neville and I give it to people I want to share it with. I'd like to publish it someday.Collection: Poetry
I write poetry on my iPhone. I've got about 100 poems on there.Collection: Poetry
My dad and my mom were big Nat King Cole fans, so they had everything he did.Collection: Mom
Beyonce is cool, and she can really sing.Collection: Cool
There are so many songs in my heart and in my brain. I wake up at 2 in the morning, and I have to get up and sing them. There are so many of them, it's ridiculous.Collection: Morning
I'm here now because of my faith. That's what got me singing and what has kept me singing. That is what I have: what has kept me doing right and has provided me with the chances and the attitude and the skills to do this.Collection: Attitude
It's a 360-degree sound experience. Like you're in the middle of the band. A lot of people have the technology to play the format, so why not put it out there. It sounds great.Collection: Technology
Be honest, be nice, be a flower not a weed.
It's up to God to do the judging. You haven't walked in my boots, so how are you going to judge me?
My favorite prayer is Footprints in the Sand. You know that prayer? I know the times that he carried me, you know? I kind of wore him out.
Doo-wop is the true music to me, man. Doo-wop was what nurtured me and grew me into who I am, and I guess even when I was in school, the teacher probably thought I had ADD or something every day, because I'd be beating on the desks, singing like the Flamingos or the Spaniels or Clyde McPhatter or somebody.
We used to play football on the levee, with no shirts on in the summer - August in New Orleans - and my skin would turn red. They'd call me Redskin, Red Apache, then it turned around to Apache Red.
In New Orleans, music is part of the culture. You're raised with it, from the cradle to the grave, and all in-between.
I'm waiting for them to come up with a 'Star Trek' thing so they can beam me from my house to the gigs and back.
I was very surprised when I heard that I had been chosen to receive the James Cardinal Gibbons Award.
Sometimes in the middle of the night, I wake up with a song in my head, and I have to finish it so I can fall back asleep.
If we were poor, we didn't know it 'cause I guess you don't miss what you never had. So, you know, we made do with whatever. We used to make our own toys, and we used to play with spinning tops and marbles. A pocket full of marbles, and you were rich - you didn't worry about no money.
My drummer, bass player, and guitar player sing backgrounds. They play and sing. I can sing all the harmonies, but I can't do it alone.
Don Was is a friend of mine; we've done projects together over the years.
When I'm singing, I connect the dots with notes.
If you had told me I'd be making 62 tomorrow, I'd say you were lying.
Growing up my mother played Sarah Vaughan and Nat Cole in the house regularly.
I even done a doo-wop version of the Mickey Mouse march.
Being at the Apollo, I was always starstruck.
So I went in front of the judge, and I had my St. Jude prayer book in my pocket and my St. Jude medal. And I'm standing there and that judge said I was found guilty, so he sentenced me to what the law prescribed: one to 14 years.
New Orleans will always be in my heart. New Orleans raised me - it's in my blood.
People are living a lot longer these days and not preparing for it. I'm in the gym and, you know, using my voice.
When you were a kid, a day was a long time and a year was a long time.
When I was living in the projects, I had a mop stick for my horse. I wanted to be Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, so I would ride my mop through the projects.
I think things happened the way they did for a reason.
You never know how much time you got.
I've been into every doo-wop there is. I think I went to the university of doo-wop-ology.
Age and numbers are a concept made up by man.
But I knew if I ran I'd never be able to sing, so I had to take my punishment.
I've had problems with my throat over the years, playing with loud bands for years, and I've had bruised vocal chords and nodules.
I started listening to gospel when I was a little boy and my grandmother used to rock me on her lap.
Man, I was scared. I didn't know what to think. All of a sudden, I got a record climbing the charts, and I'm out in the streets. You know, workin' on the docks. And the first week, it sold something like 40,000 in New Orleans.
I've done all different kinds of genres - doo-wop, pop, funk, gospel, country, jazz, you name it.
I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.
You try to do what you can to bring harmony wherever you go.
Through the years, I found we had Native American blood in us. My great-grandmother came from the island of Martinique, and they hooked up with the Native Americans of Louisiana.
My brother Art was a doo-wopper. He had a group that sat out on a park bench in New Orleans and sang harmonies at night, and they'd go around and win all the talent shows and get all the girls, you know.
I didn't just get to 75 years by tiptoeing. I had to work hard sometimes.