Quotes About Legacy

I just change with the times. I really don't have a say in what's going on. Music was here before me.

O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?

I learned from my uncle that jazz, like symphony music, was built to last.

My music is in young people's lives because it's so much a part of their parents' lives.

The cool thing about writing music, writing anything, is that once you publish it, it's there forever.

The things Elvis has done during his career and the things he has contributed and created are really something very important to the music business.

I'm not trying to overcome my father or fill his shoes or reach any kind of level that he did. We're talking about a [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart] of rock music.

Billy Joel is an incredible musician. He just feels like one of the guys, you know. I grew up listening to his music.

As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I've got left?

It means so much being a part of country music and the Opry.

I want everything, no matter what concept or genre, to feel real, because it is real. I want to keep making real music, I hope people remember me for that, that's a good thing to be remembered for.

Trane was the father. Pharoah was the son. I was the holy ghost.

You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers. They simply define what music is!

It would be nice to hear someone accidentally whistle something of mine, somewhere, just once.

My music will mean something. I'll have my own production company. I'm doing my own movies. I have my own restaurant. I just wanna expand.

Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.

Mainly I make music, and you can do that until you drop dead.

If someone can write great music... Paul McCartney is a genius. He's so prolific. All we should do is bow down to Paul McCartney.

Most people go to their grave with their music inside them.

An artist can only be evaluated after he's dead. At the 11th hour he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

I think the legacy I'll leave on music is just an artist that went out here and gave 100%.

It may be that my most helpful contributions to music aren't my compact discs but my articles about other great singers of the past for American Heritage magazine.

I'm now a legend, whether I want to be or not.

The Beatles were just a band that made it very, very big, that's all.