Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Nice
Bigs
Cadillac
Long
Cadillacs
Cared
Dressed
Riding
Plenty
Food

More quotes by Etta James

Image
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
Image
I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.
Etta James
Image
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
Image
Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.
Etta James
Image
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
Image
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
Image
It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
Etta James
Image
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
Image
All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.
Etta James
Image
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
Image
I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy.
Etta James
Image
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
Image
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
Image
My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.
Etta James
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.
Etta James
Image
A few years ago, I thought, I'll never make it. I started to go to the doctor to help me lose weight.
Etta James
Image
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