Etta James Quotes & Sayings

Country music has the great stories. — Etta James

I've learned to live with rage. In some ways, it's my rage that keeps me going. Without it, I would have been whipped long ago. With it, I got a lot more songs to sing. — Etta James

What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries. — Etta James

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. — Etta James

I've gone through so much in my life. I should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I'm the happiest I've ever been. — Etta James

My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. — Etta James

To me, country music is like the blues, but it's something very hip and - I don't want to say commercial - but it's very worldly and good listening. — Etta James

I want a Sunday kind of love
A love to last past Saturday night
And I'd like to know it's more than love at first sight — Etta James

Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. I don't. — Etta James

The music was thunder and joy. Lightning bolts of happiness and praise, foot-stomping, dance-shouting, good-feeling singing from the soul. — Etta James

I sing the songs that people need to hear. — Etta James

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 me in different stacks. — Etta James

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

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

When Malcolm X was assassinated I was working at the Apollo. They brought his body to the Unity Funeral Home, which was around the corner. — Etta James

The two things you can't fake are good food and good music — Etta James

A few years ago, I thought, I'll never make it. I started to go to the doctor to help me lose weight. — Etta James

I am so happy that I am alive and can walk. — Etta James

That's where it begins and ends for me and these songs were the ones that touched me the deepest. It was like I was laying hold of some part of me that I didn't even know was there until I let it out. — Etta James

I figured I could do 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World', because I believe it's the truth. — Etta James

Now I can stand up on the stage again like I used to after five years of sitting down while I sang. — Etta James

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. — Etta James

I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be. — Etta James

I don't care who's playing. Even if it's my favorite artist, I'm probably not gonna go and see him. — Etta James

Johnny Guitar ... just one of my favorite singers of all time. I met him when we were both on the road with Johnny Otis in the '50s when I was a teenager. We traveled the country in a car together. I would hear him sing every night. — Etta James

I took back my life. — 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. — Etta James

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 and wanted to sing and couldn't wait to be smokin' a cigarette, you know? — Etta James

My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy, — Etta James

In some ways, it's my rage that keeps me going, — Etta James

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. — Etta James

When I'm singing the blues, I'm singing life. — Etta James

Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person. — Etta James

I'm not a braggart, but when I was a little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing. — Etta James

A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies. — Etta James

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish. — Etta James

Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude. — Etta James

But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage. — Etta James

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

I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances. — Etta James

Once you lose the weight, you're really anxious to eat healthy. — Etta James

I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay. — Etta James

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. — Etta James

At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over and life is like a song. — Etta James

The only time that I am really truly happy - when I feel at my best - is when I'm on the stage. — Etta James

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore. — Etta James

They said that Etta James is still vulgar. I said, Oh, how dare them say I'm still vulgar. I'm vulgar because I dance in the chair. What would they want me to do? Want me to just be still or something like that? I've got to do something. — Etta James

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, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool. — Etta James

It feels so good to be happy. — Etta James

My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday. — Etta James

I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute. — Etta James

Most of the songs I sing, they have that blue feeling to it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. — Etta James

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! — Etta James

I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy. — Etta James

And as I started reaching deeper I realized that most of the blues of that day was done by men. Women just didn't have the nerve. — Etta James

You can't fake this music. You might be a great singer or a great musician but, in the need, that's got nothing to do with it. It's how you connect to the songs and to the history behind them. — Etta James

My mother always wanted me to be glamorous. When I thought about that, it really fired me up, and once I lost all those pounds, I started to feel really good about myself. — Etta James

I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild. — Etta James