Justin Townes Earle famous quotes

03-25-2025

You have to live what you write, or you have to know it. There are exceptions, like story songs, where you just have to have your facts straight. But I think you don't have to live a hard life to be a good or interesting songwriter.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Song #Writing #Thinking
I heard Nirvana, and discovered that songs could be like poetry, but a little bit more refined: you didn't have to have 20 verses to get your point across.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Song #Littles #Heard
I think that it's the job of the artist to be in transition and constantly learn more.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Jobs #Artist #Thinking
I try and eat good. On the road, that's next to impossible. And we eat a lot of unhealthy things when we're in Texas - that's what you do there.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Texas #Trying #Next
I've always written. When I was in school, the only teacher who ever liked me was my creative writing teacher. I used to enter poetry competitions, and I don't think I ever lost one. So I had the idea for a while of being some kind of poet.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Teacher #Writing #School
I've got a 27-inch waist. Before, I was stupid smaller. Finding clothes in the South was impossible.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Stupid #Clothes #Impossible
I've never been good at rock'n'roll songs, anyway; either I'm blessed or I'm cursed, but whatever I write comes out sounding old.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Song #Blessed #Writing
It's nice coming to Nashville, and we have four-bedroom house and a dog, and we go swimming a lot. We get down here and spread out a lot, and I miss my sweet tea and my cornbread and my good southern cooking - but I'm down here eating pretty for two weeks and I'm ready to go back to New York City.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Dog #Sweet #New York
My parents split up when I was about 2. I realize more and more how much I'm like my father. My gentleness comes from my mother.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Mother #Father #Parent
Nashville's like any other hometown - after a while, it's stifling.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Nashville #Hometown #Stifling
What I'm doing is basically the same as Bob Dylan did with folk songs and Woody Guthrie songs, the same as folk music's always done. I'm not going to sing about ploughing, but I'll write a song that sounds like it should be about ploughing.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Song #Writing #Sound
There's no such thing as a teenager that listens to a single word their father says.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Father #Teenager #Single Word
On the road, I weigh 168. At home, ten more.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Home
New York has always had a love for Southern artists. There's no place else that makes me feel like the city does. I just love the immediate nature of the city, you can get whatever you want whenever you want it and do whatever you want whenever you want to.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#New York #Artist #Cities
I think the best thing an artist can do is not hang out with other artists. I really dislike hanging out with musicians, for the most part, except for a few select friends, because I don't like to talk about music all the time.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Artist #Thinking #Musician
I love Motown, but I've obviously always been more of a Memphis soul fan. If it's Stax or Motown, I go Stax.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Soul #Fans #Memphis
Finding clothes in the South was impossible.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Clothes #Impossible #Findings
Thereâ€™s a certain urgency that comes from the records of the early 60s before overdubbing and multitracking came into play,
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Play #Records #Certain
I discovered the same thing Gram Parsons did, that soul music and country music are practically identical. Based off of the same chord structures, and the songs are of heartache and loss. The main connection is they both came up in church.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Country #Song #Loss
I know Iâ€™m never going to be a big pop star, because Iâ€™m not willing to conform,
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Stars #Bigs #Pops
As a southern man, there's two things I'm definitely not scared of: bow ties and white pants.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Men #Ties #Two
I didn't get into music to become a blues musician, or a country musician. I'm a singer-songwrit er. In my book that means I get to do whatever I want.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Country #Book #Mean
All my records have been written to be records, rather than writing a group of songs and seeing if they fit together.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Song #Writing #Together
I didn't do anything differently than what my father was doing. It's a really hard family to rebel in. I could have become an accountant. Or I could have become a Republican.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Father #Rebel #Republican
I always watched movies and rooted for the bad guys, you know? I've always been that kind of guy. I still hold some respect for criminals that are good at their jobs.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Jobs #Guy #Criminals
I grew up in a racially mixed neighborhood. So going over to friends' houses for dinner, their parents listened to Al Green and Luther Ingram. It was something that hit me early on, the feeling that came across.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#House #Parent #Feelings
I think a lot of men are afraid of pretty things, and I'm not, I like pretty songs.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Song #Men #Thinking
I don't think I have any right to say I belong to that [Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan tradition]. I think that's something that eventually maybe you get inducted into. I'm just experimenting.
-- Justin Townes Earle

#Writing #Thinking #Bob

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