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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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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
Wanted
Piano
Play
Jazz
Busy
Learned
Trouble
Getting
Fanatic
Wish
Fanatics
Mother
Tunes

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.
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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.
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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.
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I figured I could do It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World because I believe it's the truth.
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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.
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Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.
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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.
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I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances.
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I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.
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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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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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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?
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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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All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.
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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.
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It feels so good to be happy.
Etta James