Tom Waits Quotes

Without the blues, modern music would be nothing like it is now - not remotely.

The blues is the foundation for a lot of things. Things have branched off. It's cool how music grows, but the foundation is always there. It's not going anywhere. The blues is always going to be relevant.

Music was a big part of my upbringing. My mum and my grandma are very passionate about music.

I've gotta stick to my roots, and my roots are blues.

I don't just come from a musical family, but from a musical community.

Our parents were musicians.

I come from a place where there's a lot of musical families.

The first time I ever heard the blues, my parents had a stack of records that they weren't using anymore. I found them when I was ten; I didn't know what it was. But I found Lightnin' Hopkins.

My dad played music so I was around it at a really young age.

The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I'm gone.

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

You know, legends are people like Haggard and Jones and Wills and Sinatra. Those people are legends. I'm just a young buck out here trying to keep in that same circle with the rest of 'em.

I was born out of classical music.

Rock n' roll means so much more to people; it enriches the culture. Also, it inspires people; there's no half-feeling. When I first got into it, I was inspired by people who had come before me, and I found myself in the position of handing that on.

The many sounds of Memphis shaped my early musical career and continue to be an inspiration to this day.

I played with Eddie Taylor's son, Tim Taylor and Carey Bells son Lurie Bell.

I'm not trying to emulate or imitate. But I do believe that I embody that spirit from Robert Johnson on up.

The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn't know how other people would take it.

I was raised on the Southside of Chicago, and my whole family was musically-inclined.

I completely understand the responsibility I have in continuing the sonic style that I have created.

As you grow older, you learn to appreciate all the artistry. I'm actually on my way back to the blues, you know, that my mothers and fathers liked.

My whole being sonically comes from my dad's understanding of music.

Just coming from a musical family, I was always surrounded by it. On the car rides to school, my mom loved playing A Tribe Called Quest and the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,' and then my dad was listening to a lot of Bill Withers and Stevie Wonder.

What you have to understand is that blues... it's in a line from the oldest forms of African music. If you're playing it like it's an echo of the past, it would be a lot less exciting, but this music lives today.

My father's music is all I remember from my childhood.