Chuck Berry Quotes

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Chuck Berry

Profession : Musician

Birth : October 18, 1926

My dad was the cause of me being in show business. He was not only in poetry but in acting a bit. He was Mordecai in the play 'A Dream of Queen Esther.'

Chuck Berry

I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters, people who really had it hard. In our house, we had food on the table. We were doing well compared to many. So I concentrated on this fun and frolic, these novelties.

Chuck Berry

Respect isn't enough. You've got to have a proprietary interest.

Chuck Berry

I added and deleted according to the audiences' response to different gestures, and chose songs to build an act that would constantly stimulate my audience.

Chuck Berry

I always want to play the songs that people want to hear.

Chuck Berry

It amazes me when I hear people say, 'I want to go out and find out who I am.' I always knew who I was. I was going to be famous if it killed me.

Chuck Berry

My first job at Gleason's Bar in Cleveland was $800 a week, when I was making $92 a week with overtime at the automobile plant.

Chuck Berry

It's not me to toot my horn. The minute you toot your horn, it seems like society will try and disconnect your battery. And if you do not toot your horn, they'll try their darnedest to give you a horn to toot, or say that you should have a horn.

Chuck Berry

I don't want the bottom, so I have to sacrifice the top.

Chuck Berry

I used to work at Kroger's. When the store opened, you were there. When I worked in an automobile plant, you punched in. So it showed if you were a minute late. If you have a paid job, you show up.

Chuck Berry

My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is worn. And my lungs are going fast.

Chuck Berry

Music should be made to make people forget their problems, if only for a short while.

Chuck Berry

I just feel I got my inspiration, education and all from others that came before me. And I added my... I don't even know if I added anything. I played what they played, and it sounded different, I guess.

Chuck Berry

I made records for people who would buy them. No color, no ethnic, no political - I don't want that, never did.

Chuck Berry

My father married once. I married once. This is a conviction of ours. This is the way we grew up.

Chuck Berry

Remember that my view, the only true view I can see with, is through the black eyes that I have.

Chuck Berry

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.

Chuck Berry

The Big Band Era is my era. People say, 'Where did you get your style from?' I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That's the best way I could explain it.

Chuck Berry

Rather than have joy, I would rather be absent of pain.

Chuck Berry

There had to be a market in order for you to be successful in a business. The market had to need your business, or the product of it.

Chuck Berry