Johnny Rivers Quotes (33 Quotes)

And all I was doing was playing all those funky blues tunes and rock and roll songs I'd played with my band back in Baton Rouge in the '50s.

After that initial success, every chance we got we'd hire that remote recording truck and just record stuff at the Whisky because it was so inexpensive.

One of the first groups we signed was the Fifth Dimension.

Even Woodstock turned out to be a disaster. Everybody was stuck in the mud and people got sick.

I accepted an offer to do a concert for the reopening of the Mall of Memphis.

I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.

One thing will lead to another and somebody will come up with a riff or a line or something we build from.

It was a trio - Eddie Rubin was playing drums, Joe Osborn on bass. And that's when we got approached on the idea of the Whisky A Go-Go.

James was back there on a vacation, ... He was one of my favorite guitar players. I had written this song ('I'll Make Believe') that everyone said sounded like a good song for Ricky Nelson. I gave it to James. He took it back to Los Angeles and then called me and said, 'Hey, that song you gave me, I played it for Ricky and he likes it. He's gonna record it.' I went, 'Wow.' That was a big deal at the time because Elvis was in the Army and Ricky was the top guy.

In 1965, Gibson made the red one I use now, and a black one, which was the first black 335 they ever made.

Jack and I usually get together and sit around in the afternoons and start throwing ideas around.

I learned some chords and I started watching anybody I could, once I really got into it.

The first time I went to New York, I met Alan Freed.

In early '57, I bought a Fender Telecaster.

I was working at this club in downtown L.A. from four to eight at night, just Eddie Rubin, the drummer, and I.

I didn't get to talk to him, I just kept looking at him. Elvis had all this greasy hair and pimples on his face he played a mean guitar and sang like no one else. I thought he was the coolest guy I'd ever seen. I wanted to be just like him.

The web site and the Internet are a whole new ball game.

But I always loved songs with great lyrics.

My first really good guitar was a Gibson J-45.

I think after 1970 or so, after I sold Soul City, I took off for awhile and didn't do too many gigs.

Performing live, that's the ultimate thing. That's where it starts and that's where it ends. It's all about playing music.

A lot of young artists don't realize that it is a business. But the acts who survive over the years are the ones who take care of the business end of performing. Mick Jagger does it, so does Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. They know how to sell and promote themselves and their music. They understand the financial end of this business.

The first amp I had back in the '50s was a small Fender.

About two months into the Whisky, I borrowed some money and rented a remote recording truck.

I've got a Fender Concert amp from the '60s, the one Joe Osborn used. He played his bass through it.

We were the hot young band around there, ... I still have newspaper articles and stuff like that.

What I really remember is that people camped out everywhere, and the fact everybody expected it might turn into a big nightmare with all sorts of hassles because back in those days everybody was smoking pot and taking acid.

I loved playing and I was actually working two jobs.

When I came back to California in the early '60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.

I'd gone through periods where I didn't work live performances for probably seven or eight months at a time.

I think my favorite album was probably Realization.

Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.

Alan's publishing company was in the Brill Building, and of course, the Brill Building was where all the songwriters hung out because that's where all the publishers were.