'It's sexist and it's ageist and it's bulls**t' - Madonna responds to critics who say she's too old

[2naSalit]

65. I really liked Queen!

And Petula Clark and all the others you just mentioned as well as others. I started singing as soon as soon as my voice was capable of phonating... about 3.5 years old. I sang along with everything I heard on the radio and TeeVee back then. I remember learning Patsy Cline songs, and Del Shannon and all those. When the Beatles showed up on Ed Sullivan Show, I was as smitten, at that age, as my older sister who was my "provider" for music my parents probably would have let me listen to otherwise. At nine I started studying classical voice, left it in my early teens - we moved and I didn't have anything but school choir and plays but that was okay, at least I could sing. I was always the soloist in every school play that I tried out for. And the same in college (in my thirties) when I returned to classical voice.

I have orthopedic strangeness in my hands, a rare deformity in my thumbs - both - called triple-jointed trigger thumbs - makes playing instruments a little awkward. But I am NOT deterred completely. I have a friend who wants to teach me to play bass so he can play guitar (he's really talented with most stringed instruments and accompanies me sometimes). I had to laugh when he suggested that and told him, "Ha, you might teach me to play but I don't know if I'd ever pass an audition!" With vocals, I've never not been selected for any vocal part I ever auditioned for.

As the choir director for the London Symphony Orchestra Choir once told me when I did a residency with him told me, "Never quit singing." Never quit singing.

I hope I can learn to play this little thing well enough to do it in public without embarrassing myself! The guys at the music store were really sweet. One, a guy who didn't work there and was joking with me when I was playing different mandolins trying to pick one. He came up and grasped banjo and looked at me and said, as though he didn't know anything, "I wonder what this is.." As was speculatively saying that, "...it looks like a five stringed banjo to me.." He started playing some really complex riffs. I made a face and called him a wise guy, then we laughed. Had a really nice conversation and he gave me some tips on playing and chords. It was a lot of fun. So I am having a little afterglow while cleaning up my little prize and tuning it with the new strings. I think I made a good selection.

I need to get some rest though, I have a lot of chores that didn't get done today added to those thta need to be done tomorrow. Log cabin life... it's not just a place to live, it's a lifestyle.

Have a good night... and thanks.