Jack White Quotes

Charlie Patton, who was born in 1891, recorded some of the very first blues. In 'Pony Blues' and 'Peavine Blues,' he manages to pile dense layers of rhythms one upon the other.

I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother's aunt who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and a few others.

Is there one blues guy who was the most sophisticated and influential, like Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong in jazz? Was it Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Robert Johnson, or all of them? I think you have to pick all of them.

ZZ Top did get a chance to play with Lightnin' Hopkins and Jimmy Reed, there's still that one, single song we just can't shake... J.B. Hutto's "Combination Boogie".

I like the blues a lot. I grew up on it.

I grew up listening to spiritual music, Blind Willie Johnson and folk.

I've always loved the blues, John Lee Hooker, Janis Joplin, Hendrix.

I've always liked acoustic blues. I liked Bob Dylan a lot.

My favorite country blues player was Big Bill Broonzy. City blues was Freddie King, but I liked them all - Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Ralph Willis, Lonnie Johnson, Brownie McGhee and the three Kings, B.B., Albert and Freddie. Jazz-wise, I listened to Django, Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery.

Of course that was my idol, Son House. I think he did a lot for the Mississippi slide down there.

My influences were the riff-based blues coming from Chicago in the Fifties - Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Billy Boy Arnold records.

I haven't lost my blues roots.

Skip James, for me, is the meaning of the blues.

I was into Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, the blues.

I heard Robert Johnson way before I heard about Eric Clapton.

The way Will Moore taught me, and the way I play it, the blues is just something different.

The blues is instilled in every musical cell that floats around your body.

But my big thing was always the blues.

Well, I grew up on the blues, man!

The music that I listen to is very minimalistic. I listen to a lot of old blues that is just guitar and vocals.

The blues is a mighty long road. Or it could be a river, one that twists and turns and flows into a sea of limitless musical potential.

I played with Sam Lay, Jimmy Reed, Big Walter Horton, Big Moose Walker, and all those guys.

The first band I identified with from Chicago was the Muddy Waters band.

Blind Willie Johnson is a pretty big vocal influence. He can be very harsh, like gargly, gruff vocals, but also just slip into some very delicate, vulnerable soft stuff. I like that combination.

I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.