James Taylor Quotes

I've been playing live gigs since I was 13. I really don't know how to do anything else, and please God strike me down.

So I'm in my 51st year of playin' mostly nightclubs. I do some concerts.

I love the live performances and Las Vegas. I also like making films that are being discovered by another generation. Having been a teen idol of the '60s is great because you realize you left your generation with a smile and good memories.

I love music and love a good audience and still have to make a living. Why would I quit?

I can only say the first thing that pops into my mind is I remember, years ago, seeing kind of a has-been country singer working - when I first moved to Nashville - in a bar in a Holiday Inn.

And as long as people want to hear me sing, I don't know why I'd retire.

Back when I was working with the Stones and with Joe Cocker and Neil Young and Neil Diamond and all of those - 'the boys,' I call them - it was fun.

I have no problem paying my dues and I have no problem going out and working the club circuit.

A lot of bands have the enthusiasm kicked out of them by playing really dreary pub venues that just churn bands through.

I never played coffee shops; I just played a lot of coffee shop-sized venues. I took every venue I could get my hands on.

At first I missed it, but it was the amazing energy thing that happened during shows, when a lot of people were like Yay Yay Yeah! I missed that for a while. But I don't miss the regular and the business side of that whole thing.

You find yourself approaching middle age, playing another scuzzy rock club.

Playing live, you can't survive, certainly not in England. We used to work daytime jobs and play gigs at night. It was very exhausting.

If you were looking at where you would like your career to go, then you would have to cherry pick The Stones. People love coming to see them. They are it, they are the most definitive rock n roll band ever.

The truth is, I initially became a singer-songwriter while still in my teens because it was the only way to guarantee that somebody on earth would sing the songs I was writing. Since then, I've performed just about everywhere: rock clubs, concerts halls, arenas, TV.

I do probably 60 concerts a year in the States. And I go out to clubs in the week. I'm doing new stuff all the time.

You look at Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bob Seger. All they ever wanted to do was go out there and entertain, and I'm the same way.

I'm just not going to tour. One point I want to get across to everybody is that I'm still going to make records and I may still do some events. It's not the last time I'm onstage. It's been a part of my life for too long to quit everything. I have done it since the '80s, and I think it's time now to maybe see if I can live without that part.

I'm not one of those spoiled rock stars who complains about how tedious it is to perform my old hits.

It was all about music, about getting your friends to come and see you play. I don't see that same intimacy happening very much today.

Being in a rock band is about touring. It's about writing songs and it's about making records but it's also about taking a wonderful smile onto that stage and making the people feel good about themselves.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, and regularly, my parents would take us to the Holiday House Supper Club to see acts like Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn, Ben Vereen, Freda Payne, Stephanie Mills, and The Temptations, to name a few.

I'm very excited about the resurgence of vinyl which seems to parallel a growing interest in live performance.

I think I definitely would have ended up in some kind of show business. I was very interested in music when I was younger. This was back when Crosby, Stills and Nash were around.

I am a touring artist - I get a kick out of it, like, a huge kick.