I was so frightened the first time I walked out on stage that Nugent had to hold my arm to prevent me from falling flat on my face. Our entrance was a man-and-wife argument... Acting disgusted, Nugent would say, "I'm going off to my other chick."... "When I see how my man treats me," I'd moan, "I get the St.Louis Blues." Then I would sing "St. Louis Blues," but very softly. It was the first time that kind of Negro audience ever let my kind of low singing get by. And you could have heard a pin drop in that rough, rowdy audience out front. For years they had been used to Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. They loved them and all the other shouters. I could always riff and jam and growl, but I never had that loud approach. That first time, when I finished singing "St. Louis Blues," the money fell like rain on the stage. Nugent had to come on again to get me off or I would have been sitting there yet. But first he picked up the silver for me--the white money, as it sometimes is respectfully called. << less