Quotes from Leon Russell

I was raised in the Methodist Church, which is a very Germanic, military kind of music they have there. I heard this other music on the radio: Pentecostal. That was right up my street.

California always struck me as a police state.

All the time I had my success, I didn't know what I was doing. I struggled and struggled and hacked things out without any insight as to why.

I studied classical music for a long time, maybe 10 years, and I realized finally I was never going to have the hands to play that stuff.

I have damaged nerve endings on the right side, so my piano style comes from designing stuff I can play with my right hand. And some of it effectively mimics classical stuff.

I like that old style of country music - it seems to me that a lot of the modern country music is rehashed rock n' roll.

I've avoided the press and a lot of stuff that would have made me more visible just because it's not my style.