John Lee Hooker Quotes

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.

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.

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

The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

That girl has a special talent

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

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

It don't take me no three days to record no album.

One night I was layin' down,
I heard Papa talkin' to Mama,
I heard Papa say to let that boy boogie-woogie.
'Cause it's in him and it's got to come out.

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.

Ron Thompson, he's my main man!

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.

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 don't do nothin' I don't want to do.

No matter what you got, the blues is there

My style is all to myself.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 don't do nothing I don't want to do.