Jose Feliciano

“The accordion was the first instrument I played, when I was 7 years old.”

“I think I am different from most blind people because my agility is not that of a blind person - I don't shuffle my feet when I walk. In fact, I have no, as I call them, 'blindisms.'”

“When I did the national anthem, I did a soulful, kind of gospel-y version, but it was controversial with the war veterans, just the people who wanted to hear it the old, clinical, atmospheri...”

“God did not want me to be a blind beggar on the street, alone and bitter. He gave me music, first to be my companion and then to be my salvation.”

“I was growing up at a time when music was growing and changing so fast. I had learned all the big band sounds of the 1940s, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey. But then along came Chuck Berry, Les P...”

“There were screaming girls, I had to learn as a blind person how to run to a limousine otherwise they'd take my clothes off and stuff. I thought to myself 'how could this happen?' I mean I c...”

“My dream was to be a celebrity, to be on TV like Bob Hope was.”

“In 1970, my label decided I should do a Christmas album and I put a bunch of tunes together. We couldn't decide what to call it and so I said 'Why not just say Merry Christmas in Spanish? Fe...”

“I taught myself until I was about 16. And then I studied classical guitar with some teachers.”

“I don't think kneeling during the anthem is such a bad thing.”

“I went through the immigration thing. But when I got to New York it wasn't so tough for me. I went to school. I went to P.S. 57, then I went to the Lighthouse for the Blind on 59th St. I gue...”

“When I came on in '68, I was really the lone wolf.”

“I never knew Mother Teresa, but I admired her, especially in this day and age when there aren't many heroes.”

“I have no regrets, though I was the first artist to stylize the national anthem, and I got a lot of protests for it. I have no regrets. America has been good to me. I'm glad that I'm here.”

“I felt bad about the controversy because they stopped playing my songs on American radio stations. But there was nothing wrong with what I did. Now everybody sings the national anthem the wa...”

“Now everybody has been doing the national anthem in their own style, but in 1968 I was the one that took the heat. It cut my career for quite a while.”

“I'm a one-man band!”

“You can't write much quality, original music on a concertina.”

“I'm in a museum. I'm a relic.”

“When I was 15, I became an avid fan of Andres Segovia. He brought so much respectability to the guitar.”