I got a reputation for being 'eclectic' or some damn thing like that, but to me, the different kinds of music I play are all the same stuff - good time music - and it is the only stuff I can do.
Sure, immigrants will do work that no-one else will do. There was even a movie about it - 'A Day Without Mexicans.'
I don't understand the public, but I do believe the public is oversold and underrated every day. Give the people something interesting, something to chew on, I say.
I give up on pop music. As far as a commercial entity, as far as pop music goes, I quit; I absolutely throw in the towel. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I can't be what they need you to be.
Music is fragile: people die, and it's forgotten.
I've done a fair amount of commercials. I did a bunch of Champion spark plug ads and Levi's and Molson Beer. You wouldn't know it. But some of it's damn good.
I just feel that music is a great life because it's very rewarding. It's a gratification. You do this for yourself, and you also do this for other people.
If it hadn't been for record people like Ralph Peer, the Chess brothers, and Alan Lomax, then life would've been unbelievably dull, and I would've been sacking groceries somewhere and probably, at this point, running a little 7-Eleven down by the airport.
I keep my mind on track, and I don't get mad, and I don't get frustrated. Well, I do... but creative work, it's a way of controlling all that.
People who love the applause should have it, but I don't care for it.
R&B and all that stuff was always very spare and spontaneous. Nobody made those records under solid gold situations. It was just in and out, and you didn't labor over the thing. I like music like that.
I like classical music. I especially like the French composers: Ravel in particular. Debussy. That's so soothing in a nervous world.
I love listening to gospel records.
I toured around for years, but the road was always a drag for me. I never made a dime. In fact, I lost a lot of money - it was horrible.
People who get together, regardless of other structures, will find something in common. They are bound to. That was the Pete Seeger let's-all-sing theory.
When the real world intrudes on your musical fantasies, I get put out.
With country, it's hard to penetrate the thick layers of commercialism that have been applied like shellac coatings over the real thing.
I had a lot of luck in meeting great musicians who were kind enough to show me things.
How many BMWs do you need? How many Rolex watches you gonna wear in your lifetime, for crying out loud? What is it about that kind of desire? I don't understand it.
If you're white working with non-white people, you will be branded as a colonialist by some people, regardless of your efforts or intentions.
