JEFFREY OSBORNE

The beauty of all these years of singing the anthem is that I got a chance to meet athletes that I love, and there was a mutual respect.

I think I was affected quite a bit by musical and creative influences that go all the way back to my childhood.

The beauty of recording in L.A. is that most of the musicians that are on the record live here, so it was easy to get world class artists like Rick Braun to swing by and play a little trumpet, Everette Harp on sax, guitarist Paul Jackson.

I think if you look back at the lead singers that left groups that didn't make it, you'll see that a lot of them were songwriters like Lionel Richie. I mean, they were able to control their own destiny.

I grew up in a jazz household. They made me listen to jazz before I could hear my Motown.

I learned how to play the drums... it got me into LTD.

A protest is supposed to be public. How can you do it if you don't do it in front of an audience?

With pop, it's pretty much straight up and down. It has to be simple. Everybody has to be able to walk down the street and be able to sing it.

When young people hear auto-tune, they think that's real R&B. You have to get rid of all of the gimmicks.

Being the youngest of 12, I always had to wait my turn in line to play my records.

I used to do Christmas tours every year.

I listened to everything. To the early Motown groups - the Four Tops and the Temptations - to Johnny Mathis, Gloria Lynne - my sisters loved her. Sarah Vaughan. Everything.

My father was incredible on trumpet and played with the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

I've always been active in working out and taking care of myself. I've been running two miles a day since I was 18.

In all the time I was with L.T.D., I was never allowed to do an interview by myself. I wasn't even allowed to talk on stage between songs. I couldn't get a publishing agreement or a production deal because everyone had their own little role to play in the group... and the money, well, anything split 10 ways can't be much.

If you don't make those vocal chords work, they'll go dormant on you.

My motto now is eat to live. Not live to eat.

My first job was with The O'Jays playing drums.

People don't realize it, but you've got to take care of it. The vocal cord is the smallest muscle in the body, and it gets more use than any other muscle.

Everything has changed since I started recording in 1972. But the very things that have opened this industry, like the digital platforms to reach more people, have also killed things that were happening before in the recording studio. Now, most of the time, there are no real musicians in the studio; it's people with sequencers and things.

Watch what you put into your body. It will carry you a long way. No doubt.

The only real satisfaction is live performances. That's when you can actually get some feedback from what you're doing. You get that artist-to-audience chemistry. I love it!

Family is what I've leaned on for years; it's what I cherish the most.

To play the trumpet, you have to use that diaphragm, and it's the same if you want to sing correctly. You really need to push it out from there. And I think that's what has kept me going as a singer.

I always wanted to sing a jazz record.