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" I've lost a few notes on the top. But I've gained a little insight about what makes people comfortable when they're listening or watching a performance of mine. It usually has to do with singing something that isn't vocally too strenuous. "

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" As a child, all I knew was that people kept asking me to sing, and because I liked to please, I would sing. It wasn't until my dad told me that my singing made him happy that I began to think my voice might be good. "

Johnny Mathis

Voice

Think

Good

" Nat was my hero right from the very beginning. My dad brought his music into the house and played it over and over again. "

" When I got a chance, I went back and shared those experiences that were important to me. George Washington High, the campus at San Francisco State, and even back to Emerson Elementary school and Roosevelt Junior High. I was happy to do it, to go back and see if all the same teachers were there. "

Johnny Mathis

Chance

Happy

" I decided right away that whomever was going to advise me had to be fundamentally interested in music. This protected me from the skullduggery common to the music industry then and that still exists today. Of course, using this method meant that some things we didn't know and just had to learn how to do it together. "

" When I go out shopping and pass a bookstore, I always grab a couple of cookbooks, so I have a library of them. I end up keeping many that I got years and years ago because they work so well. "

" I also met, early on Ella Fitzgerald. Her songbooks are some of the most amazing bodies of work. "

" I always felt like what I was doing wasn't selling toys; I was making a happy sound at Christmas. When people hear something so familiar, it brings them back to a special place, and that's been meaningful for me. "

" When I do an album I try to find a producer that's excited about something that they want me to sing, and I check with the record company to find out what they think they can sell - which is their No. 1 priority. "

Johnny Mathis

Think

Try

" My music has always been enough. "

" I'm still going strong. I have been very blessed and still am. I love singing. Obviously, at my age, I don't tour with as many dates throughout the year as I did in the past. But I do this to honor my father who was also a singer. I still miss him and his encouragement. "

" Tony Bennett and me are all the same... and he's still singing. I don't know what else to do. "

Johnny Mathis

Same

" I had a good record company right from the beginning, and I'm still with them after all these years. I think I may be the only person in the world that's had a tenure this long with any record company. "

" There was a time when I was in the South, singing, and someone came to me before the show and said, 'There's been a threat on your life. Someone had phoned in and said they were going to shoot you if you go on stage.' I was singing 'Chances Are,' and I kept moving so they wouldn't have a shot at me. "

" The one who really captured me and became my absolute favorite was Nat King Cole. He was a genius at what he did. Most people don't realize what a great pianist he was. After listening to him for years, I finally met him, and he was the nicest human being. "

Johnny Mathis

Listening

King

" I started off as a kid singing with my dad. My dad was my best pal. But he had seven kids, and I was the only one who was kind of interested in what he was playing and singing at the piano. And he was not only my dad, but he was my best pal, and I was interested in doing whatever he wanted to. "

" Each person's voice is very different, so you need to find what works for you. Make sure you keep to your routine. "

" Dad would come home from doing odd jobs, and sometimes he'd come home late at night with lumber, and he'd rumble around with all this wood in our small place. We'd finish putting it away, and then we'd play that piano. I'll be eternally grateful to him. "

" It's the most personal thing that I do is sing. Because I can't tell a lie. I want them to know exactly what I'm feeling. "

" Most of the people I hang out with who sing love it, and they just want to do it until they die. I still look forward to the performances. And believe it or not, they're all kind of different. Even though you sing the same songs, and maybe you go to the same venues, it just feels completely different every time you go on stage. "

" Sure, I've thought about retiring, but in my mind, if you can't sing the song anymore, change the song and sing a different one! "

" I think it's important to cultivate as many people as you can to see which ones you jive with. And it makes you happy. If one dies, you have another one. So living is a process that you have to do by yourself, and if you can learn a few little goodies along the way that might make it easier for you, so much the better. "

" But I am very grateful for my success, and with success, of course, comes a whole lot of celebrity. "

" I cannot tell you how lucky I am: the songs that I sing, I like! "

" I had stage fright for years and years, and I could hear it in my singing. But since I've done it so often for so many years, you'd think that I'd relax a little bit, and I think that I have. "

" I was a mediocre basketball player. But I was there, and I could remember the plays. And my basketball coach, after he retired from teaching, would come to my performances all the time. And I was very happy about that, because I was not memorable as a basketball player. "

" When I was 13, I used to go to a jazz club. The owner of the club became my first business manager. She was very gutsy and had a lot of friends, one of whom happened to be the head of jazz at Columbia at the time. That's how it all began. "

" I think there are a lot of people who really want to be famous, they really do. I don't. It sort of gets in the way of the everyday things that I do. "

" First, I try to take everything away that doesn't matter to singing. It sounds simplistic, but it works. There is absolute focus on singing: producing sounds and emotions that I have always enjoyed. This is key. "

" I've been very happy to see some of the success that I've had along the way in opening the eyes of people, especially people who listen to music. "

" I believe it was Nat King Cole that my dad took me to see, and we were sitting in the dressing room, and I blurted out to him, 'Why didn't you sing this?' Referring to whatever song I had wanted to hear, and he told me he was tired of singing it. "