Muddy Waters quotes

Muddy Waters was an American blues musician, widely regarded as the "father of modern Chicago blues." His powerful voice and electric guitar style profoundly influenced the development of blues and rock music. He became a legendary figure whose recordings inspired countless artists worldwide. Here are 24 of his quotes:

Saturday night is your big night. Everybody used to fry up fish and have one hell of a time. Find me playing till sunrise for 50 cents and a sandwich. And be glad of it. And they really liked the low-down blues. (Muddy Waters)
I rambled all the time. I was just like that, like a rollin' stone. View quote
Muddy Waters
I been in the blues all my life. I'm still delivering 'cause I got a long memory. View quote
Muddy Waters
There's no way in the world I can feel the same blues the way I used to. When I play in Chicago, I'm playing up-to-date, not the blues I was born with. People should hear the pure blues - the blues we used to have when we had no money. View quote
Muddy Waters
Man, you don't know how I felt that afternoon when I heard that voice and it was my own voice. View quote
Muddy Waters
I got up one Christmas morning and we didn't have nothing to eat. We didn't have an apple, we didn't have an orange, we didn't have a cake, we didn't have nothing. View quote
Muddy Waters
I was messing around with the harmonica... but I was 13 before I got a real good note out of it. View quote
Muddy Waters
I was always singing the way I felt, and maybe I didn't exactly know it, but I just didn't like the way things were down there-in Mississippi. View quote
Muddy Waters
I stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them strings with a bottleneck. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had to learn. View quote
Muddy Waters
Now that I'm gettin' old enough to get some money, I'd like to have some money. I don't get much made, I need to conquer a big chunk of money. Not quit playin' but quit playin' so hard. View quote
Muddy Waters
That Mississippi sound, that Delta sound is in them old records. You can hear it all the way through. (Muddy Waters)
My grandmother, she say I shouldn't be playing. I should go to church. Fially, I say I'm going do this, I'm going do it. And she got where she didn't bother me about it. View quote
Muddy Waters
I wanted to get out of Mississippi in the worst way. Go back? What I want to go back for? View quote
Muddy Waters
I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing. View quote
Muddy Waters
Of course that was my idol, Son House. I think he did a lot for the Mississippi slide down there. View quote
Muddy Waters
You get a heck of a sound from the church. Can't you hear it in my voice? View quote
Muddy Waters
If you got something you don't want other people to know, keep it in your pocket. View quote
Muddy Waters
I went to school, but they didn't give you too much schooling because just as soon as you was big enough, you get to working in the fields. I guess I was a big boy for my age. View quote
Muddy Waters
Robert Johnson? No, I didn't know him, personally. View quote
Muddy Waters
I was so wild and crazy and dumb in my car. It didn't run but 30 miles an hour. You made do. View quote
Muddy Waters
Our little house was way back in the country. We had one house close to us, and hell the next one would've been a mile. If you got sick, you could holler and wouldn't nobody hear you. (Muddy Waters)
Oh, I started out young. They handed me a cotton sack when I was about 8 years old. Give me a little small one, tell me to fill it up. I never did like the farm but I was out there with my grandmother, didn't want to get away from around her too far. View quote
Muddy Waters
I got that first record out, it came out in '47... Then my name began to ring around. I began to take over. From that point, I tell you, Chicago was in my hand, all the more time that those guys had to listen to me. View quote
Muddy Waters
Memphis was almost like going to California. Beale Street was the black man's street. View quote
Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters - Image
Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin, CC BY-SA 2.0
Occupation: American Musician
Born: April 4, 1913
Died: April 30, 1983
Quotes count: 24