James Mangold Quotes on Music (4 Quotes)

They were each an antidote for the other. John had a hole in his heart... and June was an antidote... John was a real ambassador for her to the edge or away from a safe place as part of the first family of country music. It's the most wonderful set of opposites you could ever encounter.

People don't remember how good the music was (back then)... There's some real blood and guts in that music.

The big thing that I wanted to do was touch on the very start of rock and roll, I loved this moment in rockabilly music. I loved the idea of people making music because they loved music and not because they saw the video or how to market themselves. A very big point for me in this movie is that John didn't arrive at Sun as the man in black. He didn't already know his marketing angle. He didn't have it worked out. He was just trying to be heard and however that would work or not work was fine, but he just needed to be heard. What was magic to me about that moment in time was that it was a moment before the term 'rock and roll star' existed.

I remember being real concerned about the music and singing -- that's something we were both concerned about -- and Jim said if people want to hear Johnny Cash, they can get a Johnny Cash record, he's made a few.