Etta James

People always say 'Etta, you know what your problem is? You're neither fish nor fowl. There is no place to rack you.' When I would go in a record shop, you might find one or two records by me in different stacks.

My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.

I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.

I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be.

Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.

Most of the songs I sing, they have that blue feeling to it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about.

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.

Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person.

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!

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.

But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage.

I don't care who's playing. Even if it's my favorite artist, I'm probably not gonna go and see him.

I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances.

I'm not a braggart, but when I was a little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing.

It's the same thing now. When I go onstage the young people scream and holler as much as the older generation.

They said that Etta James is still vulgar. I said, Oh, how dare them say I'm still vulgar. I'm vulgar because I dance in the chair. What would they want me to do? Want me to just be still or something like that? I've got to do something.

That's where it begins and ends for me and these songs were the ones that touched me the deepest. It was like I was laying hold of some part of me that I didn't even know was there until I let it out.

Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. I don't.

I am so happy that I am alive and can walk.

I sing the songs that people need to hear.