At this point, I don't listen to other people too much. I'm not really that affected by anyone.
These people that think I'm cynical, I wish they'd come to see my shows these days because I've turned into a comedian, practically.
The British rockers saved me. They brought me to a different generation altogether [in the 60th]. The Who and The Yardbirds and Georgie Fame and Van Morrison and all those people. The only person who ever did my songs in [ U.S] country was Bonnie Raitt.
I'm happy whenever anybody does my material. I don't care what they do with it. I do what I want to with other people's songs.
I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me.
I do very few standards. Hardly any. Other people's tunes that I do are usually obscure tunes, for the most part, although I do a couple of Duke Ellington tunes that are well known.