I never wanted to model myself on a female singer, which tells you a lot about my character. I didn't have a female role model. There just wasn't anybody around. I played with the boys and beat them at their own game.

I don't really think about male and female; if something's right for me, it's right for me, and it doesn't matter what it is - maybe that's what it took for me, a woman, to break down the doors.

I was a me-ist. I believed in the right to do whatever I wanted to do regardless of gender. Still do.

I made up my mind that I was going to be just like Elvis. It never occurred to me that Elvis was a man. I just wanted to be him. He had a huge impact on me, right down to that black leather jumpsuit he wore on the '68 Comeback Special.