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.

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.

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

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

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

I'm afraid of me.

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

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

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.

When I'm sleeping I do a lot of living.

Everything I've done I've just fallen into.

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.

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.'

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.

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

I listen to a lot of different kinds of music.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.