J.J. Cale
I love the rabbits and the squirrels and the birds.
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.'
Where I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it wasn't the south-east and it wasn't the deep south and it wasn't quite the south-west either.
Widespread Panic discovered a couple of my songs and started doin' 'em on the gigs. They'd take a song and expand it and everybody plays a long time and people really like that. But I made my living as a songwriter so I try to get to singin' and get it over with.
When you get successful, the money comes in and pretty soon you've got to hire an accountant, you've got to get up early, and then you've got a day job.
People said my records were 'funky' and 'muddy,' but the truth is they were just demos.
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.
I make my living writing songs and, you know, I'm not a show biz kind of guy.
You don't really need a lot of hype and to be famous to sell songs.
On the 'Escondido' album, I think it took us a month to make that album.
I tried to play anything people would hire me to play, because I was a musician.
If a guy came up and said 'we got a polka band and we're going to play polkas next Saturday night' I'd play polkas.
I try and manufacture recordings to sound spontaneous. Then, some things are spontaneous.
As the years went by and technology came in, I used a lot of technology.
People have heard my music, but all my famous songs were made famous by somebody else... But that was my goal.
I'm a background person.
I'm not a household name.
Basically, I'm just a guitar player that figured out I wasn't ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing. So I got into songwriting, which is a little more profitable business.
I'd like to have the fortune, but I don't care too much about the fame.
I remember when I made my first album, I was 32 or 33 years old and I thought I was way too old then.
I'm so old, I can remember before rock 'n' roll come along.
What's really nice is when you get a check in the mail.
My music's gotten much more famous than me.
I've never sold a lot of records.
I was a late bloomer in the music business.
I think it goes back to me being a recording mixer and engineer. Because of all the technology now you can make music yourself and a lot of people are doing that now. I started out doing that a long time ago and I found when I did that I came up with a unique sound.
I stopped a lot of people who wanted to shove me into the real big time. Your ego wants to say, 'Hey, I'm somebody, man,' but I knew there were many days when I just wanted to be John Cale.
Clapton was just picking up ideas. He picked up some of mine like I picked up some from the people before me.
Send me the money and let the younger guys have the fame.
I've always enjoyed being a Gypsy.
I basically make my living writing songs, so I've been able to go around in my trailer. If I got tired of a place, I could move on and roam around. It's a nice environment for writing songs, as opposed to sitting at a recording studio console all day.
I'm a great believer in freedom of speech.
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.
I consider myself a songwriter... I guess the business end is my songs and the fun part is playing the guitar.
Yes, I've been down the pike and back. And through the years, I've heard different songs with scatting in it, and it was - always cracked me up as kind of a funny style of music, you know? When I did it, it kind of cracked me up as a comedy kind of routine.
Probably the only thing that I really don't like about being an old guy is so many of the people who understand what we know are gone.
That's one of the problems in being a songwriter and living a long time. What you eventually end up doing is you start imitating yourself.
If you write songs long enough, you run out of material that's original to yourself.
Oh, I'm not a very good singer, and that's 'cause I was always embarrassed about my singing.
I was mainly a songwriter; I really wasn't much of a performer.
There are entertainers and there are musicians, and I never was an entertainer.
All record companies want big-selling records, and my music is a little too raw for commercial success.
People are familiar with my songs, especially through Eric Clapton. But I have a hard time drawing a crowd, because I have been a songwriter.
I didn't really get any success till I was 30 years old. I played music when I was young fella, but I didn't really get any success till I was about 30 years old.
There's a couple of songs of my own I wished I'd have never put out, that, you know, I'd like to burn. But with the advent of digital and computer, nothing goes away any more, you know.
Yeah, Lynyrd Skynyrd, I knew all them guys.
From the first album I'm playing bass on a lot of the tunes, and piano on a lot of 'em, and drums, and guitars. I did that on almost every album.
We used to say when we were 20 years old, that when you reach 30, you gotta hang up your guitar and get a real job.
Sometimes the simplest forms of music are the hardest to play. Especially for musicians that are accomplished.
Nobody really produces my albums.