Bobby Womack Quotes

Yeah, I'm just blessed to have this very strong thing, my vocals. I'm very healthy in that regard.

When I first started, I was much weaker of a singer because I wasn't used to singing so much. Now I've learned, when I'm singing on stage, not to go over. You can go over and mess yourself up. I used to do it all the time, wouldn't know how to preserve it for the next show.

To sing in a lower key is harder work. You have to use your diaphragm more.

People don't realise how much energy it takes to sing and hit all those high notes - but I always feel like I've done a marathon.

As luck would have it, my voice is best when it's kind of blown out.

For some reason, my voice doesn't age. I can still hit those high harmonies just like I did back in the day.

You have to get to know your voice and its strengths and play on those. It took me quite a long time.

I try to frighten my very young colleagues into studying and understanding their voices before they attempt things that are beyond them. It's wise to take gymnastics and swimming to strengthen the body, because people don't realise what an athletic undertaking singing actually is.

I don't know if I'd ever sing a whole album because I don't know if I'd want to hear my voice for more than three or four songs.

Any voice where you've got to scream over a battle or whatever, that's always difficult. It's harder than it seems.

My voice right now, hey, listen. I don't know how long it's going to last.

I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much. It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some ways. It does have its limitations, but I'm learning different ways to keep it alive.

My son is in a band, and he's a singer, and his vocals... they're screaming-growling stuff... and he's got a pretty reasonable voice. Yet he practices really hard to get the screaming-growling thing without losing that voice every five minutes. So I'm, like, 'Hats off to you.'

I was blown away by the control and the range that I was hearing. I'm listening to Pavarotti and thinking, What the hell have I been doing with my voice all these years?

My voice hasn't changed really very much. I still do all my songs when I perform live and still do them in the original keys. I've been blessed with that ability to retain that.

I want to try to prove that at 100, I could sing as well as I was singing when I was 45 or 43.

Screaming is hard after a while.

I've done a lot of shows over a long time, and I've lost my voice on plays before, and it's because I've been thinking closely about what I'm doing with my voice. Babies can scream all day and never lose their voice because they just mean it. As long as you mean it, then it carries you through. It's do it or don't.

Recording vocals has the same kind of physical demands as you experience a lot in theater work.

'Crash' is the hardest song I've ever sang in my whole life. It's the lowest in my vocal register and the highest in my register, all within 15 seconds.

The greatest gift a man can have is to have an operatic voice.

It's not like you have two sets of vocal cords. You only have one, and if you exhaust it from talking, then you're also affecting your singing.

It's my duty to upkeep and safeguard my voice, my ability to sing.

It takes a big voice a long time to develop properly; the bigger it is, the harder it is to develop the technique.

I still struggle with my low notes. It's just always been something for me: I'm not a low singer. I have a really high voice.