J.J. Cale
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.
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.
What my whole object was is not to really sell records. I was trying to sell songs.
So, my records really didn't sell, but musicians started picking up on my sound and my songs and cutting my songs and that turned into a gold mine.
I've always enjoyed playing. If all it meant were to just stand there and play my axe and sing, I could have gone on forever.
I've always tried to come up with something that would catch your ear.
I'd say writing songs is, for me, as much playing the tape recorder as it is playing guitar or writing words.
I figure that most people will remember me for the songs I wrote.
Oil was the big business in Tulsa and there was quite a bit of nightlife for a small town. You could never make any money, but you could always find a place to play.
I played a lot of nightclubs in and around Tulsa till I was about 22, 24 years old, then I started travellin' around.
I was a studio engineer out in L.A. for about six or seven years, and I played sideman for different people, and played in bar bands. I was an old man of 32 when I made my first album.
My performing and my singing leave much to be desired, but having other people record my songs is the most flattering thing that can happen.
I wanted to be able to play music, and then when I went out in my private life, my personal life, I didn't want to be famous.
When I sit down and play the guitar, I'm 20 years old again.
You know, I write songs, I repair guitars.
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.
Sometimes I make up songs, and they're just strictly fiction. Other times, I draw on things that have happened in my life or friends, women, all sorts of things.
Songwriting is just like any other kind of writing - it's either fiction or nonfiction. You can even get into philosophy and politics, which I've done on occasion.
You never know how people are going to find songs for their records. Sometimes people will hear songs on someone else's record and really like 'em.
I've stolen licks from just about every person that ever picked up a guitar. We all borrow from one another; it's called legitimate stealing.
I'm always doing something that ain't happening, and I'm always happening when there ain't nothing going on.
I always wrote for musicians, especially guitarists. I write songs that people who aren't great virtuosos can play.
All artists are redundant about their own style; they can't escape themselves.
Everybody lives in a city, cause there's not too many people in the small towns who can find work.
No. 1, I'm a songwriter, and I don't really get out and tour.
I'd do the blues all the time if I could, that's what I'm into. But people just don't like to hear it.
I just play my guitar and push my songs and I'd like to keep it quiet.
I ain't got much to say.
Ask any guitar player - it's hard to feed yourself when you're picking for a living.
A lot of people are coming down on people taking old rock 'n' roll songs and making commercials out of them, but from a songwriter's standpoint, I don't mind because it helps pay my rent.
I was an engineer for a long time. I was a sideman guitar player.
I'm an electronic manipulator. Most people think J.J. Cale, he's organic. There ain't nothing organic about me.
I'm a recording studio guy, an engineer, a songwriter and a guitar player, in that order.
I would never ever sing at all if I could get away with it. I had pitch problems, no range. So what I did was manipulate the sound... that way you couldn't tell that I wasn't very good.
All my music sounds the same to me.
I was kind of a sideman. Then I became kind of a singer-songwriter.
I'm basically a songwriter, man. Songwriters are down in the fine print, you know? And I really enjoy that.
If I was strictly an artist, I'd have to learn to dance and get a shiny suit and stuff.
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.
The music is the same if you go all the way back to the first albums I made or the middle or whatever. The thing that's different is the lyrics.
I cut all my early records in Nashville, so I guess that makes me country. I call it country pop, but my love of the blues is in there, too.
I sure love to write songs, but I'm not so sure of my voice.
Playing out in a band all the time at least you made money. Even if you have a hit song, it takes about two years to pay.
I rarely have any contact with the artists who cover my songs.
I didn't have a phone there for about 10 years.
The only albums that I have personally named were 'number 5,' 'number 8' and 'number 10.'
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.
Makin' records is one art form and playin' live is another. It's like the difference between makin' a movie and doin' theatre.
When I sit down and play the guitar, Im 20 years old again.Collection: Guitar