A contract is an ask game, and if it asks for an hour, and I submit to an hour, then it's an hour. When I look at a contract, I look at the obligation - where, when, how long, the compensation. If I agree to it, that's the way it is. I have an obligation. They have an obligation.
I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters, people who really had it hard. In our house, we had food on the table. We were doing well compared to many. So I concentrated on this fun and frolic, these novelties.
In a Toyota, the cops don't think about stopping you so much.
I added and deleted according to the audiences' response to different gestures, and chose songs to build an act that would constantly stimulate my audience.
Listening to Nat Cole prompted me to sing sentimental songs with distinct diction.
The media dresses things up. There's a lot of inaccuracy.
Elvis' songs will always be there, and I hope mine will be after I'm gone.
In the Fifties, there were certain places we couldn't ride on the bus, and now there is a possibility of a black man being in the White House. You have to feel good about it.
People don't want to see 17 pieces in neckties. They wanna see some jeans, some gettin' down, and some wigglin'.
The music played most around St. Louis was country-western and swing. Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of the country stuff on our predominantly black audience. After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff.
In a way, I feel it might be ill-mannered to try and top myself. The music I play is a ritual. Something that matters to people in a special way. I wouldn't want to interfere with that.
My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is worn. And my lungs are going fast.
People said I was king, but I was never king, and I say I'm the prime minister.
Respect isn't enough. You've got to have a proprietary interest.
I love poetry. I love rhyming. Do you know, there are poets who don't rhyme? Shakespeare did not rhyme most of the time, and that's why I do not like him.
The Rolling Stones... The Rolling Stones have a reflection to my music; I wouldn't deny it. I think that's honest.
I directed my music to the teen-agers. I was 30 years old when I did 'Maybellene.' My school days had long been over when I did 'School Day,' but I was thinking of them.
What kind of shorts I wear has nothing to do with music.
My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.
The Man Upstairs is taking care of me.
