John Lee Hooker Quotes

• 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.

  John Lee Hooker

• 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

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

  John Lee Hooker

• 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

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

  John Lee Hooker

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

  John Lee Hooker

• Oh, I still like to play and I still play when I want to.

  John Lee Hooker

• My style is all to myself.

  John Lee Hooker

• 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

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

  John Lee Hooker

• In my career, people in the record business have been rockin’ in the same ol’ boat. They all crooks – I’ll say it clear and loud – especially the big ones.

  John Lee Hooker

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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.

  John Lee Hooker

• I like the small clubs.

  John Lee Hooker

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

  John Lee Hooker

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

  John Lee Hooker

• 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

John Lee Hooker (29)

Birth:	22nd August, 1917
Death:	21st June, 2001
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Guitarist, Lyricist, Singer

About

John Lee Hooker was born in Mississippi, USA. He was an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Some of his best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'", "Dimples", and "Boom Boom". Several of his later albums, including The Healer, Mr. Lucky, Chill Out, and Don't Look Back, were album chart successes in the U.S. and U.K. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. He won Grammy Awards, including Best Traditional Blues Recording, 1990, for I'm in the Mood (with Bonnie Raitt), Best Traditional Blues Album, 1995, for Chill Out, Best Traditional Blues Recording, 1998, for Don't Look Back, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, 1998, Don't Look Back (with Van Morrison). He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

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