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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
Littles
Couldn
Wanted
Waiting
Smokin
Little
Year
Cigarette
Years
Five
Lady
People
Church
Grown
Girl
Performing
Used
Sing
Young
Wait

More quotes by Etta James

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When Malcolm X was assassinated I was working at the Apollo. They brought his body to the Unity Funeral Home, which was around the corner.
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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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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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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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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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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My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.
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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My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.
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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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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Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.
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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It feels so good to be happy.
Etta James
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When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems.
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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My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!
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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You know, YOUR President, the one with the big ears-he ain't my President - had that woman singing for him at his Inauguration. She's going to get her [expletive] whooped. How dare Beyonce sing MY song that I been singing forever. Now I'm going to sing it for y'all.
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