One of the problems that we face through the media attention that these artists receive is that there has been an awful lot of talk about opera and classical music being elite and being for an elitist group. ↗
The same music is playing on the radio in San Francisco, New York, Washington DC and Annapolis. Everywhere you go there's the same artists and same songs by them, over and over again. At some stations they play the same songs 50 to 60 times a week. ↗
I used to always read my stuff. And I could never understand why artists would say, 'Oh, I can't read my older stuff.' I'd go, 'Are you crazy? I could read my stuff forever!' Now it's a little harder. ↗
They would come down in Mississippi, they hired me as a talent scout. And I would go all over Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and find out different artists for them. ↗