“Gil Scott-Heron often brings up at performances how people say that he disappeared during the past decade – during the years, that is, when he was serving time. Not long ago, he sold out the Blue Note, a club in Manhattan.
“I read all those reviews that said I disappeared,” he said. “Wouldn’t that be great if I could add that to my act? Come up here and – poof!” Then he said, “I had read how great I was before I disappeared. It makes me afraid to show up.”

When Scott-Heron touched on the subject of prison, he said, “They say my new record proves I came out of jail angry. Nobody comes out of jail angry. They come out of jail happy.”

– Alec Wilkinson,
  The New Yorker, Aug. 9, 2010