“Tony Williams, my contemporary. He’s maybe one or two years younger than me, but man, he was doing things that really inspired me. Just the musical side of it was great. As far as his personality goes, he might have done things another way. But that was Tony – Tony was Tony. [Laughs]

“In a way, now I love him even more for it. He took his position, and he did whatever he had to do to get over. I didn’t agree with him playing so aggressively and at levels of volume that I found unnecessary, but on the other hand, that’s like telling Terry Bozzio, ‘Don’t play so many drums.’

“Everybody has his way, and Tony taught me a lot by his actions. Through music, he does not lie. If you feel a certain way, that’s what you’re going to play. Tony made this record when he was 18 or 19 years old, and he was already such a talent. It blew me away. I saw him at a festival and I told him, ‘You just opened it up for me a lot of other cats.’ Not that we were going to play with Miles, but we could play with people like Miles.”