David Johansen Quotes & Sayings

You know, when you're making a record, you come up with 15, 20 songs. Then they start to fall by the wayside as your interest wanes. It's kind of like a process of elimination to determine which songs wind up on the record. — David Johansen

When I'm sleeping I do a lot of living. — David Johansen

It's really a drag to do the same project over and over again. — David Johansen

In the late '70s, I had a band - the David Johansen band, for lack of a better name - and I started collecting, not records, but tapes from people I knew who had jump-blues records. — David Johansen

You know when you read that someone has to leave a show or a tour because they had 'nervous exhaustion'? Well, I had one of those and discovered that I was quite close to death. I always assumed that my lifestyle was going to take me at an early age, but when it was actually occurring I was, 'Not yet!' I pulled back. — David Johansen

I'm not impersonating anybody. I'm perfectly satisfied with what I am. — David Johansen

Sometimes when I hear my voice on tape, I'm like, 'Who is that horrible man?' — David Johansen

I'm afraid of me. — David Johansen

We thought that's the way you were supposed to be if you were in a rock 'n' roll band. Flamboyant. — David Johansen

I still do a lot of shows with Brian Koonin, but we haven't had a full band lately. — David Johansen

Young people are still looking and older people have found ... — David Johansen

You try things on in life. You wear them for a while, and you see what's next. — David Johansen

Until I was six years old we lived in the projects, then my two brothers and three sisters and I moved to a three-bed that my mother's father built. — David Johansen

Rock & Rollers don't dress for the weather. — David Johansen

I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock 'n' roll especially comes from blues. — David Johansen

The first Latin music that blew my mind was bumba, which was a Puerto Rican beat. — David Johansen

Music is my love and to me acting is more mercenary. I don't pound the pavements for roles: if it happens, it happens. I hate that auditioning thing. — David Johansen

When I was a kid, I had some Charles Lloyd records. — David Johansen

Most bands are commercial enterprises. But I'm not in one of those bands. — David Johansen

I don't really like to sit around the house listening to my own records. They're not that good. — David Johansen

I've been tired since I was 15. — David Johansen

My father was a Norwegian tenor and my mother a New York Irish librarian. — David Johansen

I got arrested once on stage in Memphis for looking too much like Liza Minnelli. — David Johansen

I don't know why I'm alive but I know there's a reason for it. — David Johansen

Sometimes I've found that by getting into a certain drag, or a certain feeling, you can cast off your mortal coil and really do something. I don't know if it's important, but it's something. It's entertainment. — David Johansen

Everything I've done I've just fallen into. — David Johansen

The stuff that I dig, it's usually got a soulful component to it. A singer that I really like. I might not understand the language that they're singing in, but I'm really communing with this person. — David Johansen

I've been around the block a couple of times, and the guy I am now is the guy I like to be. — David Johansen

I mean, if you asked me what I'm going to be doing when I'm 85, I'd make a quick picture in my mind and, well, I'll be singing. — David Johansen

Playing music is the best thing in the world. It makes show business almost bearable. — David Johansen

I'm doing exactly what I want to do, and I'm having fun doing it. — David Johansen

I'm compelled to paint nearly every day. I just felt like making a painting, went out and bought paints and a canvas. Now it fulfills me creatively when I'm not doing music: it's something you can do by yourself and it's totally yours. It's a great adjunct to my life. — David Johansen

When you're a kid, you have this feeling like you're indestructible. Your mortality doesn't even occur to you. But as time goes by, you realize, 'I better cut this out or that out if I want to continue to exist.' — David Johansen

As I recall, my life as a child was so all-consuming that I barely had time to consider the future. — David Johansen