John A. Powell Quotes

I'm not stupid enough to want to be famous. But I would like to be able to earn a living playing music.

I'm on my feet and I'm doing what I love to do, and I'm in a profession, as a musician, where we can go on for as long as we can go on.

I'm a kid for a living: I get to play the piano for a living.

I have never done any other job. I have sung in bands since I was 15. I left school completely unqualified. I have no other training.

I didn't know if it would be a success-ful one, or what the stages would be, but I always saw myself as a lifetime musician and songwriter.

I want to travel around the country and make my living playing music. I also try to behave in a way that I would appreciate as a music fan. That's how we conduct ourselves, be it in writing music or playing it live.

I've been playing since I was a teenager, and I put out a few albums when I was younger. When 'Crazy Heart' took off, it gave me another reason to get into music in a more serious fashion.

When I was younger, I worked for several years composing music for commercials, but I was very happy to give that up. I didn't really like it, it was a way of financing my bands.

By the time I was about 15, I was out playing gigs and knew I was going to be a musician.

Honestly, if acting never worked out, I would have done music.

I went straight from high school to Bible college for two years. Then I started doing music right out of Bible college full time. I did independent stuff for three years.

We all want to play great music all the time, but if that is not possible, you have to hit as many right notes as you can.

If you're in music, you're in music, and if you're in music you just want to keep making records and playing. That's what it's about, isn't it? At least, that's what I always thought it was about, anyway.

I think I might have played a song on piano or guitar in a school talent show. I went to an all girls school, so there were always little things going on, but it wasn't really until I was 17 that I did a proper performance. My first big one was Glastonbury, before I was signed.

I've played the Royal Albert Hall to 8,500 people, and there wasn't a nerve in my body.

Music was always encouraged as a passion and a hobby, but I was never told, 'This should be your job. You write music and record for a living.' It doesn't happen for people.

When I was a kid, I never thought I would ever be able to make records and never really thought seriously about a musical career because a musical career was being Fabian or Frankie Avalon or something. It didn't make any sense. There wasn't any possibility to get into that world.

My aunt played upright bass in the Louisville Orchestra, and I was always really impressed by her musical ability. I found it really fascinating as a kid that one could play music for a living.

I never thought being a musician would be something I could make a career out of.

I always wanted to be a composer, and I sort of went in to NYU as pre-med because I just thought, 'Well... who actually becomes a composer?'

Playing to a decent standard sometimes isn't enough.

I have done nothing my entire life but play music.

Three weeks into being in Hollywood, I was playing with Slash through an ad in the paper.

I was kind of torn between playing music or playing college football. I was going to college and really focusing on my music career.

Even in high school, music was just a really fun thing on the side. I don't think I grasped the fact that it could be a profession.