John Lee Hooker Quotes


"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Cities, Taste)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Work, Night)

"I like dropping into a small club and playing with some people, trying to help them get a start."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: People, Help, Trying)

"Oh, I still like to play and I still play when I want to."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Play, Want)

"I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Idea, 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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Months)

"I don't think about time. You're here when you're here. I think about today, staying in tune."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Time, Today)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Money, Deep)

"I want to play music when I want, write a song if I want or watch a baseball game if I want."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Music, Baseball, Play, Song, Want)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Fancy, Guitar, Play, Want)

"I don't do nothing I don't want to do."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Nothing, Want)

"I am a happy man. I've had a good life."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Life, Man)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Time, People, Benefits, Help, Needs)

"My style is all to myself."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Style)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Europe)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Business, People, Career)

"I like the small clubs."
- John Lee Hooker
"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: People, Now)

"Groups are corporations now. They have pension plans. Musicians have saw the daylight."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Corporations, Musicians, Now)

"All my life I been doin' what people tell me to do. Now, I'm telling them."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Life, People, Now)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Money, Music, Care, Play)

"The way Will Moore taught me, and the way I play it, the blues is just something different."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Play, Will)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Money, Love, Kiss, Mind, Night, Sleep, Woman)

"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."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: People, Choice)

"It don't take me no three days to record no album."
- John Lee Hooker
"The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Meaning)

"Since you knew they was goin' to cheat you anyway, I recorded under any name with all of 'em."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Name)

"But I don't want to do no big tours or go out on the road."
- John Lee Hooker
(Related: Road, Want)