John Lee Hooker famous quotes

The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Stories #Lines

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

#Mean #Guitar #Play

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

#People #Choices #Radio

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.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Sleep #Night #People

It's never hard to sing the blues. Everyone in the world has the blues . . .
-- John Lee Hooker

#World

Well I ain't seen my baby since I don't know when, I've been drinking bourbon whiskey, scotch and gin Gonna get high man I'm gonna get loose, Need me a triple shot of that juice Gonna get drunk don't you have no fear I want one bourbon, one scotch and one beer One bourbon, one scotch, one beer.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Baby #Drinking #Beer

I don't think about time. You're here when you're here. I think about today, staying in tune.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Stay Strong #Thinking #Tunes

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

#Cheating #Names #Ems

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

#Cheating #Play #Long

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

#People #Trying

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

#Heartache #Giving #Matter

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.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Music #Real #Men

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.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Mean #Night #Hands

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

#Baseball #Song #Writing

I don't do nothing I don't want to do.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Want

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

#Light #Cities #Taste

I am a happy man. I've had a good life.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Good Life #Men

I've got enough money to live me two lifetimes so I don't have to do nothing I don't want to.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Two #Want #Lifetime

I like dropping into a small club and playing with some people, trying to help them get a start.
-- John Lee Hooker

#People #Trying #Clubs

I just get an idea and then all of a sudden I've got a song.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Song #Ideas

I wanna get drunk 'til I'm off my mind. One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Beer #Scotch #Drunk

Groups are corporations now. They have pension plans. Musicians have saw the daylight.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Musician #Groups #Daylight

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.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Play #People #Feelings

No matter what you got, the blues is there
-- John Lee Hooker

#Matter

I don't do nothin’ I don't want to do.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Want

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

#Love You #Sleep #Kissing

That girl has a special talent
-- John Lee Hooker

#Girl #Special #Talent

When I die, they'll bury the blues with me. But the blues will never die.
-- John Lee Hooker

Ron Thompson, he's my main man!
-- John Lee Hooker

#Men

It don't take me no three days to record no album.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Albums #Three #Records

The way Will Moore taught me, and the way I play it, the blues is just something different.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Play #Different #Way

My style is all to myself.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Style

All my life I been doin' what people tell me to do. Now, I'm telling them.
-- John Lee Hooker

#People

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

#People #Needs #Benefits

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

#Pick Me Up #Splits #Memphis

But I don't want to do no big tours or go out on the road.
-- John Lee Hooker

#Want #Bigs