John Mayall

You have to pack as much as you can in an hour or 70 minutes. This time around it was 15 songs, so it was a challenge to get them all the right length so you could get them all on.

I never really thought about becoming a professional musician.

The way I look at it, they’re all part of my musical diary, and I can listen to any one of them and it will bring up memories of what was going on at that time.

If you have something in your life worth celebrating, you can put it in a blues song.

Check out the albums, … Check out the live performances. That’s the reality of it all. Music is such an energizing thing.

I do the best I can with any instrument I get attracted to. But they’re just tools in order for you to express yourself and that’s really the upshot of it.

What we hear is the quality of our listening.

What a fool I am to think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

I feel I have only scratched the surface of what I know I am capable of doing.

Have you ever wondered why young people take to music like fish to water? Maybe it’s because music is fun, plain and simple.

Django was the definitive genius on the guitar, and the depth of his gift was so spectacular.

I write songs about real things… The subject dictates the mood and it goes from there, really.

A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.

I’m going to make music out of whatever style it is, being true to the artform itself.

Anytime you strike the drums, you have to be aware that you’re creating a musical event.

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won’t come out.

Jazz has the ability to absorb and transform influences from diverse musical styles.

During these years I began to feel an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations of the music-loving public and the living composer. It seemed to me that we composers were in danger of working in a vacuum.

Composing makes me feel like I’ve finally gotten all the way up the ladder as a musician.

I’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like.

I don’t like to look back because the whole point in Jazz is doing it now.