[... A]s long as there is music, there's gonna be a way that somebody is going to try to connive and downgrade you in what you're doing. If I had thought about doing back then what I have in mind to do now, "Sleeping in the Ground" would never have appeared on records done by a whole lot of people that are doing great for themselves, but I'm not getting a dime.

There are a lot of musicians who have released that song, and the only thing I ever got from it was a name as the writer of that song. It's all right to have a name, but where could you spend that at?

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Robert Cray and Eric Clapton and several other people whose names I do not know have recorded "Sleeping in the Ground." That particular song is on at least ten other records. It was on Eric Clapton's deal twice; he had a box set with it that went platinum. But not a dime for me, though. So what can you say about that? People ask me to do the song, and I say, "I don't mean to be rude in no way, but as soon as I get some money for doing this song, I'll be too glad to sing it for you." Some people understand, but some people look at it like me being smart.