Quote

When I'm performing for the people, I am me, then. I am that little girl who, when she was five years old, used to sing at church. Or I'm that 15-year-old young lady who wanted to be grown and wanted to sing and couldn't wait to be smokin' a cigarette, you know?

Etta James

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Etta James
Age: 73 †
Born: 1938
Born: January 25
Died: 2012
Died: January 20
Jazz Musician
Musician
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
LA
California
Jamesetta Hawkins
Miss Peaches
Little
Year
Cigarette
Years
Five
Lady
People
Church
Grown
Girl
Performing
Used
Sing
Young
Wait
Littles
Couldn
Wanted
Waiting
Smokin

More quotes by Etta James

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When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.
Etta James
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I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances.
Etta James
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It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
Etta James
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I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay.
Etta James
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My mother always wanted me to be glamorous. When I thought about that, it really fired me up, and once I lost all those pounds, I started to feel really good about myself.
Etta James
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A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.
Etta James
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I don't care who's playing. Even if it's my favorite artist, I'm probably not gonna go and see him.
Etta James
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I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute.
Etta James
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My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.
Etta James
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This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.
Etta James
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My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.
Etta James
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I want a Sunday kind of love A love to last past Saturday night And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight
Etta James
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My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that.
Etta James
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What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.
Etta James
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Johnny Guitar... just one of my favorite singers of all time. I met him when we were both on the road with Johnny Otis in the '50s when I was a teenager. We traveled the country in a car together.I would hear him sing every night.
Etta James
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I've gone through so much in my life. I should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I'm the happiest I've ever been.
Etta James
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Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.
Etta James
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Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.
Etta James
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I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy.
Etta James
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All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.
Etta James