J. J. Cale Quotes

I'm a songwriter and I'd love to make that a part of my career.

I attended a post-college program in L.A. for Music Business and Production. Took several courses involving Music Production, Arrangement, and Songwriting.

I am a songwriter at heart, and I feel like I would, in the future, write songs for other people. I don't think I want to pursue it for myself, for a solo career.

I love music, so if I wasn't singing, I would probably still be working in the music industry. I love songwriting, so I'd probably be a songwriter.

I'm lucky I actually make a living making music.

I'm very conscious of the fact that I devoted my life to recording music, recordings and writing songs.

I had been writing songs for awhile - since I was 14 - and playing guitar, but I never really knew how to go about making an actual career.

The goal as a musician, I think, is to be able to make music as a living for the rest of your life.

Well, I actually first got into music as a small child, and as I became a teen, I sought out making money from music, weather that was singing lounge gigs, backup in studios, or weddings.

Whenever I fill out the job description I put 'songwriter', never 'singer' or 'artist.' Singers come and go.

I dabbled a little bit in the whole music thing but I've always thought about Bernie Taupin, who is Elton John's lyricist; Elton John is the great melody and song writer but Bernie Taupin is the one who writes all the lyrics. I don't write lyrics, and I never wanted to be in the music business if I was just going to be a puppet in it.

I have an independent record label called Favored Nations on which I released an album by an artist called Johnny A, who plays an arch top Gibson through a Marshall, but the tone is all in his fingers.

I'm a songwriter first.

College didn't stick, so I worked odd jobs, but I've always written songs and played music. I actually met a guy who was a songwriter, which I didn't realize was a real job.

I moved to Nashville to be a songwriter. I found out that was a job, that someone would pay you to sit in a room with a guitar and make up songs! It is the greatest job in the world. I wrote three or four songs a day. That's what I lived for.

I didn't know they would pay you money to sit in a room and write songs for other people. I always thought that George Strait was singing a song, he made it up, and that was the end of it. But the instant I found that out, that that could be a job, I thought, 'That's the job for me. I gotta figure out how to do that.'

I have no such ambition of becoming an actor. I want to grow as a musician, singer and songwriter.

Some people are songwriters, and some people are just recording artists. I'm both. I write and record.

I grew up writing songs and producing music, and I studied music production in college.

I consider myself a songwriter... I guess the business end is my songs and the fun part is playing the guitar.

A musician is a professional, whether he or she is successful or not. The profession itself must be regarded as a stable job.

There was never really a Plan B for me - I always wanted to be a music artist.

I played the guitar and thought that was what I was going to do as a career. I still record music that is played in my restaurants.

I didn't want to be a solo Westlife - covers and ballads - and the reason I signed with Capitol Records was because they wanted me to write songs myself. It was pretty scary, but they put me in a studio in Nashville with some new songwriters, and the results were pretty good.

Songwriting is something I really need to work on. I don't have very many songs but I really love it. I would love to be a great song writer some day.