John Mayall

To me, they are equally important, as they represent a certain period in my life and times. With that in mind, it really is impossible to pick favorites.

Everybody I know in England was raised on Mose Allison.

If you have something in your life worth celebrating, you can put it in a blues song.

I’ve never thought the blues was a matter of copying other people. The blues singer should sing songs about his own life. And once the ball got rolling, I felt confident enough to do that as well as cover other people’s songs, and the tributes. You’ve got to think about representing your own life in the music, and for me that meant bringing in an element of jazz; I was brought up on jazz, it was my father’s work, it was in the house.

The blues fitted in with the early 60s, the social way of life at the time.

I never really thought about becoming a professional musician.

I’ll drink water. Sometimes tomato juice, which I like. Sometimes orange juice, which I like. I’ll drink different things. But the Coke or Pepsi boosts you up a little.

We can’t let people down when they can’t get any medical care, when they’re sick and don’t have money to go to a doctor. You help them.

My advice would be to talk to people about [your anxiety]. Don’t feel alone in it. Treat your body as if you are another person that you need to take care of and heal.

For four to six months at a time, I would barely eat. I lived on a diet of Melba toast, carrots, and black coffee.

The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.

There’s not shame in dealing with these things. There’s no shame in having to fight everyday.

It’s not just people who can’t find a job, or can’t fit in in society that struggle with depression sometimes.

When individuals have access to the information about their bodies they can begin to change outcomes.

I think it’s important for us to have open conversations about mental health, especially with me being black, because we’ve never had therapists in the black community, we’ve never taken medication. I think it was good that when I had my first complete blackout at age 5, my mom didn’t fully medicate me, because I might not have fully been Ye.

It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn’t even think. That’s the whole trouble. When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think.

I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke.

Need a whole new syntax for fatigue on days like this.

Yes. I am mentally ill. I’m not embarrassed about it. And I have written my best work not when flirting with the brink, but when treating my chronic health problem with consistency and care.

To be honest, part of me doesn’t want to talk about being sick because I want it to all be behind me, but I know I have to.

I say there’re no depressed words just depressed minds.