James Young Quotes

I've always had a close connection to both rock and classical music.

If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock 'n' roll especially comes from blues.

I didn't want to go out and change anything. I just wanted to make the music that was part of my background, which was rock and blues and hip-hop.

Growing up with country, R&B, gospel, and classical music from my grandmother and pop, Tuskegee was the perfect melting pot for my influences as a writer.

We're a gumbo of American music, and aren't ashamed to play pop or soul or rock because we all grew up on radio.

Guys like me and Ray Charles, when we was coming up through our days, country music and soul music was just a very thin line between the two.

The blues is the foundation, and it's got to carry the top. The other part of the scene, the rock 'n' roll and the jazz, are the walls of the blues.

It was really terrific but Foreigner was nothing like Yes and that style did not suit our music.

I grew up listening to everything. And rock and roll has always been a big, big part of it - as big a part of what I do as any other type of music.

Rock & roll has kept us alive for all these years. But we just love country music. It's in our blood.

All of my solos are blues based. Even though a lot of my songs get into pop, I wind up going back to the blues. Trying to escape it is like trying to run from the devil.

For guitar players especially, blues is the foundation of rock and roll. You take country music and rock and roll and jazz and you mix it together, and that's my basic makeup.

By growing up in Alabama, I had a melting pot of the whole pie: R&B, gospel, country.

My mom listened to the Beatles and Elvis, a lot of different types of music.

I was into playing American music, especially the blues.

People like Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Captain Beefheart - all of these artists were what I grew up listening to every day of my life. And there's a very healthy music scene in the west country of England, where I grew up.

There are always generic terms like 'Americana', but there are no boundaries as to where it can go.

Even the most jingoistic person would have to admit that even American cultural music comes from Europe. That's what classical music is, real European music.

Many cities make music, but no city breathes music quite like Memphis. The songs and sounds that come from here are uniquely American.

I'm John Lee Hooker in the sense that he was a blues man and he played blues his whole life. I'm a rock guy and I'm going to play rock music my whole life.

I think every once in a while country has lost its way, but found its way back. It's always going to drift away from the traditional side, but then find a way to return. There's room for all kinds of influences be it pop, blues, gospel or whatever. But I will always say that I think we need more traditional country music coming down the pike.

I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.

I love music, I love all kinds of music, particularly jazz. Jazz is an extension of America. There's no other country in the world that could have produced jazz.

I love music, that it changes so much, but I also want to keep a bit of the country roots to make it country. I don't want to go too far away from it, or I would do pop music.