When I was nine years old, or something around that age, I found a 45 record in the basement that belonged to my mother, and I had one of those little record players that you carry in a little suitcase, and that was the only record that would fit in my personal record player, so I played it. Whatever the song was it touched me, it moved me, and I realized that I wanted to find more of those little records. That’s what I used to call them. “Where are the little records? I want to find these little records,” and went into the basement and just unearthed tons and tons of these records from my mother’s childhood and her youth. So here I am eight, nine years old, everybody else was listening to New Edition and whatever current group is on the radio. And I’m listening to Shep and the Limelites, and Gladys Knight and the Pips, and all these older groups, and really loving it and becoming — just doused myself, doused myself in all this music and all this musical history. They really were my teachers, my musical teachers. I didn’t go to Juilliard, or I wasn’t classically trained, but by listening — you know what I mean — I grew an appreciation for certain musical philosophies and ideas and concepts. I understood what drums and bass and all different types of instrumentation were, just by virtue of my exposure to this music. I would fall asleep to it. You always talk about how students who don’t want to study put your book under the pillow and sleep, but I literally fell asleep with the music. And I think there’s so much of that I soaked up even in my dreams.