Many are about his life growing up in the state of New Jersey, where he was born in nineteen forty-nine.

VOA: special.2009.11.30

Even though growing up in the United States Americanized him, he says his family retains its Honduran heritage.

VOA: standard.2010.06.09

One said the Jackson family was regarded as royalty when she was growing up, but the singer's many plastic surgeries made some believe he hoped to obscure his black identity.

VOA: standard.2009.06.28

During that time, while on tour in Europe and Southeast Asia, he decided to stray from his usual regimen of smooth jazz and focus on the jazz classics he heard growing up.

VOA: standard.2010.04.12