Quotes from J. J. Cale

I've never sold a lot of records.

From the first album I'm playing bass on a lot of the tunes, and piano on a lot of 'em, and drums, and guitars. I did that on almost every album.

I generally, you know, I don't - I don't really scat. I'm - I'm basically a songwriter so you need a little lyrics that rhyme and stuff.

That's one of the problems in being a songwriter and living a long time. What you eventually end up doing is you start imitating yourself.

People are familiar with my songs, especially through Eric Clapton. But I have a hard time drawing a crowd, because I have been a songwriter.

I consider myself a songwriter... I guess the business end is my songs and the fun part is playing the guitar.

I was mainly a songwriter; I really wasn't much of a performer.

I guess if I'd have more of a producer attitude, maybe I'd sell more records. But I'm basically a songwriter.

No. 1, I'm a songwriter, and I don't really get out and tour.

I'm basically a songwriter, man. Songwriters are down in the fine print, you know? And I really enjoy that.

Basically, I'm just a guitar player that figured out I wasn't ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing. So I got into songwriting, which is a little more profitable business.

That's the nice thing about songwriting: You don't have to punch a clock or be in a specific place to do it. There's really a lot of freedom to it.

I sing and play guitar, but songwriting is how I pay my rent. And so I didn't really need a lot of publicity to get people to record the songs.

When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it was so big at the time, I decided that I would pursue the songwriting thing. I was 34 years old at that time. I'd been down the pike and back before I had any success at all.

People said my records were 'funky' and 'muddy,' but the truth is they were just demos.

I was a late bloomer in the music business.

The only albums that I have personally named were 'number 5,' 'number 8' and 'number 10.'

I try and manufacture recordings to sound spontaneous. Then, some things are spontaneous.

I love the rabbits and the squirrels and the birds.

A lot of people are coming down on people taking old rock 'n' roll songs and making commercials out of them, but from a songwriter's standpoint, I don't mind because it helps pay my rent.

What my whole object was is not to really sell records. I was trying to sell songs.

I've stolen licks from just about every person that ever picked up a guitar. We all borrow from one another; it's called legitimate stealing.

I stopped a lot of people who wanted to shove me into the real big time. Your ego wants to say, 'Hey, I'm somebody, man,' but I knew there were many days when I just wanted to be John Cale.

Where I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it wasn't the south-east and it wasn't the deep south and it wasn't quite the south-west either.