Ray Charles

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Q: How does it feel to know you have changed history? Do you think about that a lot?

A: Yeah, I do, I really do. I’m very proud that we opened doors, that it helped tear down a lot. Going around the world, doing tours, in stadiums, you see the influence of the music. When you just look out over the stage, as far as the naked eye could see, you see people. And it’s a wonderful feeling, but it came with a lot of pain, a lot of pain.

Q: How so?

A: When you’re on top of your game, when you’re a pioneer, people come at you. It’s there, who’s at the top, you want to get at them.

But I feel grateful, all those record-breaking things, to the biggest albums, to those No. Is, I still feel grateful. I’m a guy who used to sit in my living room and listen to my father play Ray Charles. My mother used to wake me up at 3 in the morning, ‘Michael, he’s on TV, he’s on TV!’ I’d run to the TV and James Brown would be on TV. I said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’

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Tagged as: 2007, Age 42 - 50 2000-2009, Celeb Barack Obama, Celebrity Stevie Wonder, interview, Mag: Ebony Magazine, Ray Charles

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