Carl Perkins Quotes

When I heard Elvis and his 'Sun Sessions,' I went mad for it. I was about thirteen.

I basically sat down for a month, with all the Sun stuff I could find and just picked out my favorites. I didn't think that they were indicative of '54 to '57, although I tried to stay within that period.

I was raised on Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly and discovered the Stray Cats when I was 11 or 12 years old.

If you went to school in Nashville, you were aware of all those '60s rockabilly people.

I didn't realize how many true Rockabilly fans there were here in America.

I was an original Elvis fan. He was the voice of my generation. I was listening to him on the radio when he released his great Sun records with Scotty Moore on electric guitar and Bill Black on bass.

It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel' I thought, this is it.

I was always interested in listening to music - and, of course, when my older brother brought home 'Heartbreak Hotel,' that was it.

Elvis Presley's Sun stuff - there's an album out in England with just about all those sides on it - you know, the sound of that upright bass slapping away: that's what I like to listen to. That and Richard Pryor, that is.

You had to pick something like Blue Suede Shoes because it's the flagship of the Sun label, but then I wanted to dig down and find something like Rakin' and Scrapin'.

I was very keen on people like Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Gene Vincent.

I loved Carl Perkins, Jerry lee Lewis... not only were they personal friends.

Elvis deserves a lot of credit for bringing the blues to middle America, not the Vegas stuff. The early stuff, The Sun records, and the first few RCA records. He was wonderful, he had the power, the drive, and he was so dedicated to his music.

The first record I bought was a Carl Perkins record, because I saw him at The Festival at Sandpoint, Idaho. I loved Elvis and I found out that he wrote 'Blue Suede Shoes'... so connecting that experience of going to see him play was pretty awesome. That's when I realised I wanted to play guitar.

I've loved music always, and my music fire was lit by Elvis Presley, really, and all that was happening back then.

Elvis Presley's music never meant anything to me. Mambo was the music I loved - it spoke to me.

I knew about Elvis. Of course, everybody knew about him then.

Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, and a lot of American artists were my greatest influences.

My dream collaboration would be Elvis.

Elvis was a great singer. He really was.

I just sort of grew up with music always in the background like a soundtrack. And it really hit me hard when The Beatles came along, like so many people. That got me started digging back further to Chuck Berry.

I saw footage of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley just hanging out together in Memphis when they were young guys getting started at Sun, listening to records together. That was beautiful to me.

I started out just as Elvis was going into the army, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 14-year-old cousin, and Little Richard became a priest.

God bless the boys from Memphis, blue suede shoes, and Elvis.

Wouldn't it be interesting to take Elvis back to his Sun Records period? I don't know. But I'm content to listen to his Sun Records. I don't want to dig him up out of the grave.