In the midst of our conversation, Talat Aziz receives for his approval, the rough edit of a video put together by his editor for a screening at the Royal Opera House on February 14. In the several-minute-long clip, an assortment of images of Aziz, spanning four decades, shows him interacting with an array of industry doyens, including Jagjit Singh, Mehdi Hasan, Pyarelal Sharma, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Zahur Khayyam, and Sonu Nigam, among others. These are only a handful when compared to the barrage of artistes Aziz names in our hour-long conversation, as he revisits 40 years since he ventured into the industry.

While he will mark the event with music on February 14, he does so with a series of stories about his life, in this interview. Aziz began his journey as a true hustler, willingly taking up offers, both on Indian and international turf, whether or not they came from credible places. "A sarangi player told me to go to the open-air festival called Rangmansh; I went," he says at one point. "In '77, I got a call to do a show in Canada; I went," he says later. Like every hustler, he recalls hearing his first recorded song, and concluding that "I'd never make it as a singer."