Quotes from Johnny Rivers

One thing will lead to another and somebody will come up with a riff or a line or something we build from.

The web site and the Internet are a whole new ball game.

The first amp I had back in the '50s was a small Fender.

In early '57, I bought a Fender Telecaster.

I was working at this club in downtown L.A. from four to eight at night, just Eddie Rubin, the drummer, and I.

My first really good guitar was a Gibson J-45.

Even Woodstock turned out to be a disaster. Everybody was stuck in the mud and people got sick.

Jack and I usually get together and sit around in the afternoons and start throwing ideas around.

I think my favorite album was probably Realization.

In 1965, Gibson made the red one I use now, and a black one, which was the first black 335 they ever made.

I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.

One of the first groups we signed was the Fifth Dimension.

I've got a Fender Concert amp from the '60s, the one Joe Osborn used. He played his bass through it.

What I really remember is that people camped out everywhere, and the fact everybody expected it might turn into a big nightmare with all sorts of hassles because back in those days everybody was smoking pot and taking acid.

After that initial success, every chance we got we'd hire that remote recording truck and just record stuff at the Whisky because it was so inexpensive.

About two months into the Whisky, I borrowed some money and rented a remote recording truck.

I think after 1970 or so, after I sold Soul City, I took off for awhile and didn't do too many gigs.

The first time I went to New York, I met Alan Freed.

Alan's publishing company was in the Brill Building, and of course, the Brill Building was where all the songwriters hung out because that's where all the publishers were.

I accepted an offer to do a concert for the reopening of the Mall of Memphis.

I loved playing and I was actually working two jobs.