Bettye LaVette on how the music industry pigeonholed her in the 1960s

They started off by trying to make me sound like a girl, which really played me out of position. I really thought at one point I could sound like Doris Day, and it took me a long time to accept the fact that I sound more like James Brown. And now I’m trying to convince everybody it’s OK for me to sound like James Brown. They all sounded either like they came from church or like girls. And I didn’t come from church, and I really don’t sound like girls as we know girls to sound.

Via