Bernie Worrell

I got private lessons in keyboard at Julliard, before New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Prince presented us at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I was born with a natural gift. My mother recognized the talent.

Woo means the ability to entice someone or something to get what you want. My first solo album was called: All the Woo of the Universe, which was titled by George Clinton.

Usually, I just do what I want, because I got it that way.

Providence School of Art students used to sneak into P Funk concerts.

People like my voice and say I can sing, but I don’t like microphones in front of my face: it distracts me.

We used to have a main female vocalist. But she had a baby. Now we do the singing ourselves.

As far as arrangements after the basic track is cut, if I’m writing a horn arrangement or playing strings, I might arrange that, plan that out. Other times, I’ll just sit and roll tape.

I don’t listen to a lot of radio today. It’s not really music to me.

I was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and no one had ever taught anybody that young, back in those days.

My mother wanted me to be a concert pianist.

You can be enticed by food, wooed by food, sex, money, or instruments.

I talk by playing, not by words.

The radios are going to dictate. That’s another fight. That’s another story there. I wish they just let it be.

I was known around the college for jamming in the lounge.