Music is a kind of magical thing, and you can't make magic every time, but you try. Every once in a while it has that magic, and the audience knows that. I probably miss it more than I hit it, but I think that's what all musicians try for.
When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it was so big at the time, I decided that I would pursue the songwriting thing. I was 34 years old at that time. I'd been down the pike and back before I had any success at all.
People said my records were 'funky' and 'muddy,' but the truth is they were just demos.
You don't really need a lot of hype and to be famous to sell songs.
The only albums that I have personally named were 'number 5,' 'number 8' and 'number 10.'
I'd like to have the fortune, but I don't care too much about the fame.
What my whole object was is not to really sell records. I was trying to sell songs.
I sing and play guitar, but songwriting is how I pay my rent. And so I didn't really need a lot of publicity to get people to record the songs.
I'm a background person.
I was a late bloomer in the music business.
People have heard my music, but all my famous songs were made famous by somebody else... But that was my goal.
That's kinda what happened to me: I listened to jazz, country, R&B, rock 'n' roll. And when I sat down to write a song, I had all these influences comin' through.
When they say, 'Well, you gotta do some interviews on TV,' I went, 'Oh, I like to watch TV, but I don't wanna be on it.'
My music's gotten much more famous than me.
As the years went by and technology came in, I used a lot of technology.
Working in bars back then, in the '50s, to get a job you had to play all kinds of music. There'd be customers come in and yell jazz tunes at you and yell rock 'n' roll tunes at you and polkas and rhythm and blues and country music.
That's the nice thing about songwriting: You don't have to punch a clock or be in a specific place to do it. There's really a lot of freedom to it.
Makin' records is one art form and playin' live is another. It's like the difference between makin' a movie and doin' theatre.
I love the rabbits and the squirrels and the birds.
I generally, you know, I don't - I don't really scat. I'm - I'm basically a songwriter so you need a little lyrics that rhyme and stuff.
