Quotes by 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage."

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

"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."

"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. I'd like to think I did that."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"It feels so good to be happy."

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

"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?"

"Country music has the great stories."

"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."

"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!"