Joe Williams on starting with Duke Ellington.

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Joe Williams on accepting success.

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Joe Williams discusses his knowledge of Duke Ellington compositions.

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Q: “You must owe an awful lot to [Duke Ellington] musically and personally as well because you were not a kid when you became a star – you were ready for it. You were what, in your thirties by the time you made the big hit?”

A: “But even so, there is an attitude and there is a way, I think, that one conducts oneself. From having observed people like in Ellington and the Basie and Andy Kirk and Jimmy Lunceford, which you are aware are my tutors in conduct, I mean. These men had such big dignity and what have you and, you know, there are a lot of kid in me that, you know, handball, soccer, football, tennis, and you know, there’s a lot of teenager in me. And they ... after watching them and watching how ... and also people in theater like Belafonte. I had a chance to sit in dressing room with Kennedy Lee while he received his guests and what have you. And people come in with this total adoration, you know, almost doing a courtesy or kneeling and kissing the ring-type thing and to see how they handle that kind of thing or what have you. That was a lesson in itself in conduct and how to handle success. Because when you get to the place where people admire you and people love you and expect a great deal from you, then you have that to live up to. One very wise young man once said, "When people are surrounding you all the time, and you know, seek your company, then the reasons that they are there is maybe because you have the capacity to try to come up to them and they come down to you."