Jose Feliciano Quotes

Jose Feliciano

Profession : Musician

Birth : September 10, 1945

Some people wanted me deported - as if you can be deported to Puerto Rico.

Jose Feliciano

Actually, being blind is not so bad. If you're born this way, you never know anything else and you don't wonder about it. Though I'd hate to have lost my sight after being able to see.

Jose Feliciano

When I did the anthem, I did it with the understanding in my heart and mind that I did it because I'm a patriot. I was trying to be a grateful patriot. I was expressing my feelings for America when I did the anthem my way instead of just singing it with an orchestra.

Jose Feliciano

I have no regrets, though I was the first artist to stylize the national anthem, and I got a lot of protests for it. I have no regrets. America has been good to me. I'm glad that I'm here.

Jose Feliciano

Now everybody has been doing the national anthem in their own style, but in 1968 I was the one that took the heat. It cut my career for quite a while.

Jose Feliciano

I take pride in the fact that I was the first Hispanic artist to really crack the English market.

Jose Feliciano

I was very, very fortunate that 'Chico and the Man' was on TV, that helped me quite a bit. Of course, having the No. 1 Christmas song in the Spanish market, 'Feliz Navidad,' doesn't hurt either.

Jose Feliciano

The accordion was the first instrument I played, when I was 7 years old.

Jose Feliciano

I just happened to be Latino, and like any artist, I was trying to forge a career. If I opened doors for others, that's great, but nobody starts out with those aspirations.

Jose Feliciano

It's a wonderful thing to play with symphony orchestras - I've played with many - but it's really special in Israel because you have so many great musicians.

Jose Feliciano

I've been a fan of Elvis since I was 11, so for me, it was a real thrill to make an album of all my favorite Elvis songs.

Jose Feliciano

Very few guitarists play nylon-string. They don't know how to get the sound out of them. That's something I've spent a lot of time on.

Jose Feliciano

I'm not like other guitar players. In fact, I'm not even like most acoustic players because I use the nylon-string acoustic. I do play steel-string and the electric guitar, too, because I love rock 'n' roll and guitarists like Jimi Hendrix. But my bread and butter has always been the nylon-string.

Jose Feliciano

When I was 15, I became an avid fan of Andres Segovia. He brought so much respectability to the guitar.

Jose Feliciano

From 1969 to 1973, I was never played on radio stations.

Jose Feliciano

Pioneers will always get the stones, when everyone later gets the accolades.

Jose Feliciano

I don't think kneeling during the anthem is such a bad thing.

Jose Feliciano

The day I stop learning and I don't try to make myself better on the guitar, that's the day I hang it up and say, 'Goodbye.'

Jose Feliciano

No one can pigeon-hole me because I play everything, and I did that on purpose.

Jose Feliciano

I did whole Latin albums and it was like Beatlemania for me in the Latin world, the screaming girls, not being able to leave the hotel, at the airport met by screaming fans. That was something!

Jose Feliciano