Truth never changes. Truth always sets people free.
Cynthia Robinson
I saw 'Rolling Stone' magazine once, and they were talking about the top 50 songs, and there wasn't one Sly song; how does that happen? But, Sly isn't the type to brown nose for props. He's always known what he had, what he was capable of; I'm just proud that he took the time and effort to put it to music.
I know the songs that Sly wrote still have the meaning for those that are living today that weren't even around when we started playing before, in the beginning. His lyrics, to me, if you listen to them, they can form a lifestyle that will leave you a happier person, a better person on this planet. It's just lyrics to live by.
Sly always had us rehearsing, and he always had something planned out that he wanted us to do. So it wasn't ever like, 'Well what should we work on?' It was never that. He always had the plan, 'This is what we're going to do today, shoop shoop shoop shoop,' and everybody's minds were in the same direction.
I used to hear all these guys on 78s at my mother's when I was a teenager... I used to daydream that I was onstage playing the solos; I'm playing with B.B. King, and I'm playing with Lowell Fulsom, Jimmy McCracklin. And I literally ended up being in a band that backed them up at different clubs.
I never thought for one second I'd be able to play with a real band. When I was in high school, I went through a lot of bad treatment and was called a lot of names by boys because I wanted to play. Sly was different.
As time passed on, got to hear some players who were straight up funky, not just jazz. Nat Adderley, for instance - he's a funky trumpet player, so he was my man.
I told my kids, 'It doesn't matter if this person or that person in the family isn't perfect; this is what you've got. We have to work with that, and if you can't work with that, then you're just jumping into someone else's family, and there's always going to be something missing if you don't work that out.'
The future has never been something that I've been able to plan. Every time I try - I don't care if it's three or four days ahead or a week ahead - it just doesn't pan out.
If you're a musician, there's no instrument that can be withheld from you. If you're drawn to it, develop the talent for it.
I realized I was a girl playing with all of these great musicians, but race and gender never did cross my mind, really, until other people started talking about them. They weren't really an issue for me.
I didn't think I could play in a band. It just wasn't an option - all band members were men, and bandleaders were men.
I played the flute in elementary school, but when I got into high school, they didn't have any flutes; they gave me a clarinet and said, 'Play it in the same way, just hold in a different position.' I really didn't care much for it.
