Etta James Quotes & Sayings

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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'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?”

“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.”

“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.”