Etta James

“I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.”

“It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.”

“My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.”

“Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.”

“I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be.”

“See, I don't like places where people can't dance - don't like clubs or theatres where a bunch of bourgeois people sit around tip, tip, tipping their fingers.”

“Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.”

“When I'm performing for the people, I am me, then. I am that little girl who, when she was five years old, used to sing at church. Or I'm that 15-year-old young lady who wanted to be grown a...”

“All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.”

“I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances.”

“Once you lose the weight, you're really anxious to eat healthy.”

“My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!”

“Country music has the great stories.”

“When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.”

“Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.”

“I talked to the record company about what I had in mind. They said they wanted something lush. I figured the best thing to do was let them hear what I had in mind.”

“When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems.”

“It's the same thing now. When I go onstage the young people scream and holler as much as the older generation.”

“Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz...”

“People always say 'Etta, you know what your problem is? You're neither fish nor fowl. There is no place to rack you.' When I would go in a record shop, you might find one or two records by m...”