Quotes from J. J. Cale

I think it goes back to me being a recording mixer and engineer. Because of all the technology now you can make music yourself and a lot of people are doing that now. I started out doing that a long time ago and I found when I did that I came up with a unique sound.

I cut all my early records in Nashville, so I guess that makes me country. I call it country pop, but my love of the blues is in there, too.

All artists are redundant about their own style; they can't escape themselves.

People have heard my music, but all my famous songs were made famous by somebody else... But that was my goal.

I didn't really get any success till I was 30 years old. I played music when I was young fella, but I didn't really get any success till I was about 30 years old.

I played a lot of nightclubs in and around Tulsa till I was about 22, 24 years old, then I started travellin' around.

I tried to play anything people would hire me to play, because I was a musician.

When you get successful, the money comes in and pretty soon you've got to hire an accountant, you've got to get up early, and then you've got a day job.

I'm not a household name.

I figure that most people will remember me for the songs I wrote.

I remember when I made my first album, I was 32 or 33 years old and I thought I was way too old then.

You know, I write songs, I repair guitars.

You don't really need a lot of hype and to be famous to sell songs.

I'd do the blues all the time if I could, that's what I'm into. But people just don't like to hear it.

Oil was the big business in Tulsa and there was quite a bit of nightlife for a small town. You could never make any money, but you could always find a place to play.

Everybody lives in a city, cause there's not too many people in the small towns who can find work.

Sometimes the simplest forms of music are the hardest to play. Especially for musicians that are accomplished.

I basically make my living writing songs, so I've been able to go around in my trailer. If I got tired of a place, I could move on and roam around. It's a nice environment for writing songs, as opposed to sitting at a recording studio console all day.

I've always enjoyed playing. If all it meant were to just stand there and play my axe and sing, I could have gone on forever.

I was kind of a sideman. Then I became kind of a singer-songwriter.

When I sit down and play the guitar, I'm 20 years old again.

Working in bars back then, in the '50s, to get a job you had to play all kinds of music. There'd be customers come in and yell jazz tunes at you and yell rock 'n' roll tunes at you and polkas and rhythm and blues and country music.

That's kinda what happened to me: I listened to jazz, country, R&B, rock 'n' roll. And when I sat down to write a song, I had all these influences comin' through.

Send me the money and let the younger guys have the fame.