The roots of the blues aren\u2019t planted wherever extra firmly than within the tiny city of Tutwiler, Tallahatchee County, Mississippi. That\u2019s the place one among its best ever representatives, John Lee Hooker,<\/strong><\/a> was born one August 22. While the 12 months of his start has lengthy been the topic of debate, the consensus locations it at 1917. One hundred years later, followers worldwide saluted the centenary of a mighty presence on this unique American artwork kind.<\/p>\n This contribution is a retrospective of John Lee Hooker quotes. He gave numerous interviews over the course of his lengthy profession wherein he spoke brazenly about his dirt-poor upbringing, his transfer to the massive cities and his breakthrough into recording. He additionally addressed the blues growth of the Nineteen Sixties and the renewed latter-day success that confirmed him as a worldwide ambassador for the music he cherished. As you\u2019ll see, he was by no means shy about his personal achievements, both. These 20 John Lee Hooker quotes describe his life in his personal phrases.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up in the 20s on a cotton farm. My dad had all this land, with horses and cows. But that wasn\u2019t my life\u2026I was gonna do\u00a0 this, play the blues. I made the decision I was gonna run away to the city at 14, and it paid off. If I\u2019d stayed in the South, I\u2019d probably been a farmer my whole life\u201d (Buzz<\/em>, 1985)<\/p>\n On his upbringing within the poor, segregated South and subsequent social integration: \u201cI went to Memphis, Cincinnati and then Detroit. I was playin\u2019 when I was 13 or 14; my stepfather taught me how to play. What I\u2019m playing now, he taught me. Nobody else plays this style; I got it all to myself. They\u00a0 tries; they get close, but\u2026a lot of guitarists get\u00a0 good; they\u2019re fantastic, beautiful, really fast, but a lot of them just sound alike. You got to tell your own story, like I tell\u00a0 my own. You hear one of these guys, you heard \u2019em all. They sound like B.B. King<\/strong><\/a>, or like Jimi Hendrix<\/strong><\/a>. They ain\u2019t themselves. You got to sound like yourself. You may not be fantastic, or fast; but if you got a\u00a0 different style\u2026nobody sound like John Lee Hooker\u201d (Q<\/em>, 1990)<\/p>\n \u201cThe first record I made in Detroit was for a company you would never have heard of: \u2018Guess I\u2019m Alone\u2019 on Staff Records. That was my first little record: it was a small little company just around the community, it didn\u2019t get anywhere but just around town, to Ohio and places like that. Then I went to another label and met Bernie Besman [who recorded him doing \u2018Boogie Chillen\u2019\u2019 and took it to Modern Records, where it became an R&B No. 1 in 1949]\u201d (NME<\/em>, 1982)<\/p>\n On enjoying whereas at his job in a window body manufacturing facility:<\/em> \u201cThe blues are like a fire that spreads once it has broken out. All over the world, young people are waking up to the blues\u2026you can\u2019t like what you don\u2019t know and I don\u2019t think the blues had been heard much until the last few years. And now The Beatles<\/strong><\/a>, who sing a lot of blues, are the biggest thing in the business. I like them very much and they\u2019re doing us all a lot of good popularizing the blues\u201d (Record Mirror<\/em>, 1964)<\/p>\n \u201cThe blues was born in America. But the American people never did give it respect. They slipped the blues under the bed, under the rug for\u00a0 years. But the British people, they seen what a gold mine it was and took the blues\u2026bang, all of a sudden the blues was tearing Europe apart\u201d (Buzz<\/em>, 1985)<\/p>\n \u201cYou take the Rolling Stones<\/strong><\/a>. They useta play second on the bill behind me. I give them a lotta respect because they do a lotta my material. They love it well enough to do it, and that was puttin\u2019 pounds of money in my pocket. I appreciate that\u201d (NME<\/em>, 1976)<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t handle success if you ain\u2019t paid some dues. Some of them get the big heads, the ego-trip \u2014 you can\u2019t talk to \u2019em. If you got it the hard way, you know how you got it. You appreciate the people that put you there at the top. You look at your public. They is the one that put you where you is at. That\u2019s why I\u2019m always takin] time out to talk to my fans, have a little drink with them or whatever\u201d (NME<\/em>, 1976)<\/p>\n \u201cI love people. I\u2019m lonely when I\u2019m not around people, good people, not rich people. I don\u2019t wanna be around rich people with all their money, but people who come out to see me. They got time for me, I got time for them. People with all the money, they so sedated they don\u2019t go out, they sittin\u2019 like a sittin\u2019 duck. The rich, they got ever\u2019thing, although they got problems too, but it ain\u2019t money problems. They got problems other ways tryin\u2019 to hold onto what they got. They bein\u2019 guarded like a rabbit in a cage\u201d (NME<\/em>, 1976)<\/p>\n \u201cI live in California and all the time I do this when I\u2019m home \u2014 I get out an\u2019 I go in the little neighbourhood bars, ole raggedy shacks, sit around and drink beer. Just blue jeans, old gym shoes, just sit there with them, you know. I don\u2019t want all that STUFF. I\u2019d feel outa place\u201d (NME<\/em>, 1976)<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t need to shout. A lotta young rock groups\u2026they think if you don\u2019t play as loud as you can go, it ain\u2019t happening. It is. People out in the audience, a lotta them like rock but they don\u2019t like it blastin.\u2019 They want it kinda downbeat and you can hear what\u2019s goin\u2019 on. We play the boogie music, but we keep it down\u201d (NME<\/em>, 1976)<\/p>\n![\"uDiscover](\"https:\/\/www.udiscovermusic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/uDiscover-Rewards-Program-728x182-2.jpg\")
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<\/b>\u201cYou teach your kids, little tots, to hate and they\u2019ll grow up hatin.\u2019 But now it\u2019s so far advanced, the young kids down there don\u2019t pay no attention. I give one man the credit. [Martin Luther] King. He brought this thing but he died for it. He will always live with the people. He started this upgrade of people gettin\u2019 along together. They killed off the Presidents, two good people I really loved, the Kennedys. So they got one more brother now and he ain\u2019t gonna run which I don\u2019t blame. I wouldn\u2019t run neither\u201d (NME<\/em>, 1976)<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI used to take the guitar on the job with me and play for the guys. One day a colored fellow from a local record shop heard me, said I was tremendous, and asked would I like to make some records. Every thing I did was a hit! Muddy Waters<\/strong><\/a> said I was taking over from everybody! And I\u2019ve been making records ever since\u201d (Record Mirror<\/em>, 1964)