John Lee Hooker
The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.
I don't do nothing I don't want to do.
I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks.
I am a happy man. I've had a good life.
I went on to Cincinnati. I had got a taste of the big cities and them bright lights. I stayed there until I was about 18 or 19 and then I went on to Detroit.
I do benefits. I do them all the time. There's so many people out there that needs help that I can't say I won't help them.
I want to play music when I want, write a song if I want or watch a baseball game if I want.
In my career, people in the record business have been rockin' in the same ol' boat. They all crooks - I'll say it clear and loud - especially the big ones.
I don't think about time. You're here when you're here. I think about today, staying in tune.
Like you and your woman ain't gettin' along and you're in love. You can't sleep at nights. Your mind is on her - on whatever. You know, that's the blues. You can't hug that money at night. You can't kiss it.
They wasn't gonna give you nothin'. I didn't care as long as they let me play my music. Cash on the spot... You cheat me and I'm gonna get me some money, too.
My style is all to myself.
You can go to Europe, and there's no turnin' back - any parts of Europe. Wherever you are, there is no stop and go for the blues. The blues go but it don't stop.
The way Will Moore taught me, and the way I play it, the blues is just something different.
The one thing the blues don't get is the backing and pushing of TV and radio like a lot of this garbage you hears. They choke stuff down people's throat so they got no choice but to listen to it.
Since you knew they was goin' to cheat you anyway, I recorded under any name with all of 'em.
Oh, I still like to play and I still play when I want to.
It don't take me no three days to record no album.
If they played more blues, people would just get it - they try to hold it back but just about can't hold it back now because the blues is really going.
I've got enough money to live me two lifetimes so I don't have to do nothing I don't want to.
I remember back in Detroit, I used to go to the Apex Bar every night after I got off work. The bartender there used to call me Boom Boom. I don't know why, but he did.
I like the small clubs.
I like dropping into a small club and playing with some people, trying to help them get a start.
I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song.
I hitchhiked, took trucks 'n' trains - anything that would pick me up. I stopped in Memphis for about six months and they found me and come got me. Stayed about a month an' split again.
I have heartaches, I have blues. No matter what you got, the blues is there. 'Cause that's all I know - the blues. And I can sing the blues so deep until you can have this room full of money and I can give you the blues.
Groups are corporations now. They have pension plans. Musicians have saw the daylight.
But I don't want to do no big tours or go out on the road.
All my life I been doin' what people tell me to do. Now, I'm telling them.
I don't like no fancy chords. Just the boogie. The drive. The feeling. A lot of people play fancy but they don't have no style. It's a deep feeling-you just can't stop listening to that sad blues sound. My sound.Collection: Play
No matter what you got, the blues is thereCollection: Matter
When I die, they'll bury the blues with me. But the blues will never die.Collection: Dies
It's never hard to sing the blues. Everyone in the world has the blues . . .Collection: World
I don't do nothin’ I don't want to do.Collection: Want
Poor people have the blues because they're poor and hungry. Rich people can't sleep at night because they're trying to hold on to their money and everything they have.Collection: Sleep
I never build myself us. I let the people do that. I'm the most laid-back person, and I let them build me up. If you ask me, I say, 'I''m just a guy playin' some blues.Collection: People
I'm even afraid to lay down with you at night, because when you go to bed at night, mean woman, you got an ice pick in your hand.Collection: Mean
I wanna get drunk 'til I'm off my mind. One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer.Collection: Beer
Ron Thompson, he's my main man!Collection: Men
That girl has a special talentCollection: Girl
I been doing the same things as in my younger days, when I was coming up, and now here I am, an old man, up there in the charts. And I say, well, what happened? Have they just thought up the real John Lee Hooker, is that it? And I think, well, I won't tell nobody else! I can't help but wonder what happened.Collection: Music