Levon Helm Quotes

My parents wanted me to be smart and be a scholar, and the best I could do was graduate high school.

A friend of mine took me to Memphis advised me that I should get in the musicians' union. He gave me a set of drums and said, Stay on the job, son.

I don't think I'm a millionaire, but I'm comfortable.

I've had all the lessons I could get. I've learned from everybody I've ever met.

With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.

The power of music just kinda kills all those ills; it cures everything and you've got more energy just from the music. And, I've never seen it fail. It's good for ya; real good for ya.

Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me.

If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.

By the time The Band did The Last Waltz, the chemistry had changed, and it wasn't a thrill anymore to live that studio kind of life.

Well, somebody's got to sing. They won't hire you unless you sing.

Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better.

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

We were in our early twenties, playing and traveling, and didn't have to answer to anybody. It was the kind of life where if you had a problem today, you could be five hundred miles away from it the next day.

Good times don't last long sometimes.

Those bad times are important. They give you a chance to practice, listen, take stock, have a life, get your feet back on the ground, and maybe you'll live to tell the story.

New York, it was an adult portion. It was an adult dose. So it took a couple of trips to get into it. You just go in the first time and you get your ass kicked and you take off. As soon as it heals up, you come back and you try it again. Eventually, you fall right in love with it.

My mom, God love her, she was one of those Bible people. She thought it was wrong to bother anybody, regardless of race, color or religion. It just wasn't a Christian thing to look down on anybody, and that's what she taught us.

The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did.

Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian.

You got to pick one - pay your medical bills or pay the mortgage. Most people can't do both, and I'm no different.

The sound of the blues, rhythm and blues, country music, is what we lived for, black and white alike. It gave you strength to sit on one of those throbbing Allis-Chalmers tractors all day if you knew you were gonna hear something on the radio or maybe see a show that evening.

Songs don't wear out. Good songs are good now. If they were a comfort during those hard times in the past, they'll be a comfort in today's age.

You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.

We all love musical architecture; there's no doubt about that.

As rowdy as the place was, I've seen rowdier times playing fraternity parties in Oklahoma.

Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.

My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I'm home.

I don't fool with a lot of things that I can't have fun with. There's not much reward in that.

When we were unloading or going into a restaurant, the raisin got stepped on and smeared like a flapjack. The Hawk was displeased when he saw that. "Goddamn," he growled, "I gave you guys a hundred to get off cigarettes. I'll give you two hundred to get rid of these damn raisins!

The crowd is just as important as the group. It takes everything to make it work.