When you do a show five days a week and one night a week, the way I was doing, you use up so much music every day that pretty soon you find yourself hustling for material.

You can keep rummaging around until you find a song you like, but you can't predict whether it'll hit or not.

I snapped my fingers all through it. Sometimes I set my own tempo during rehearsal by doing that.

Sixteen Tons was written eight years before I recorded it.

We decided to do some of Merle's things with modern instrumentation. We used a flute, a bass clarinet, a trumpet, a clarinet, drums, a guitar, vibes and a piano.