The Blues is never old.
You have to understand the styles and it’s good to study those that came before us.
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible the gift that God gave me to use. I’m happy with that.
The high note is not the only thing.
You can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, you’re working without any real feeling.
One of the advantages of growing older is you learn what to leave out.
The way a band works is a metaphor for all sorts of collaborative and larger enterprises that people do.
I like to sleep. There is no set time of day for sleep. You sleep when you’re tired and that’s all there is to it.
Jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.
If you’re gonna sing meaningful songs, you have to be committed to living a life that backs that up.
Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.
As a little kid, blues meant hope, excitement, pure emotion. Blues were about feelings. They seem to bring out the feelings of the artist and they brought out my feelings as a kid. They made me wanna move, or sing, or pick up Reverend’s guitar and figure out how to make those wonderful sounds.
Jazz is a mental attitude rather than a style. It uses a certain process of the mind expressed spontaneously through some musical instrument. I’m concerned with retaining that process.
Playing the guitar is like telling the truth – you never have to worry about repeating the same [lie] if you told the truth. You don’t have to pretend, or cover up. If someone asks you again, you don’t have to think about it or worry about it because there it is. It’s you.
Using drugs didn’t help me play, all it did was hang me up for 15 years.
Jazz is a music that allows a person to express his deepest, most personal self.
