Jose Feliciano Quotes

Jose Feliciano

Profession : Musician

Birth : September 10, 1945

When my career took off it surprised me, I was only 22. To have that much success so fast, I just wasn't prepared.

Jose Feliciano

When you've had a chance to live some experiences then you can really write, and not having lived that much when I was young I didn't have much to write about. Now having seen life, the songs seem to come easier.

Jose Feliciano

If I've influenced people, so be it, but I don't dwell on those kinds of things. I just put out my music. If I influence someone without knowing it, I'm happy about it. I try not to think about those things because it's not about me.

Jose Feliciano

When I did the national anthem, I did a soulful, kind of gospel-y version, but it was controversial with the war veterans, just the people who wanted to hear it the old, clinical, atmospheric way, and I didn't want to sing it like that.

Jose Feliciano

As a Hispanic American, this country has done a lot for me, and I think that people have to be more grateful for what they have in this country.

Jose Feliciano

I always tell my wife she's married to the Puerto Rican Elvis.

Jose Feliciano

I didn't have romances when I was in school. Girls didn't want to go out with me because I was blind.

Jose Feliciano

I became a teen idol. At the time, it embarrassed me.

Jose Feliciano

I always wanted to be the first true Latino to break the American barrier, to be on the American charts.

Jose Feliciano

RCA wanted me to change my name. They asked me around 1965, when they first signed me. They said, 'Feliciano is too Latin.' I said, 'That's who I am. I'm Jose Feliciano.' They wanted me to change my name to Joe Phillips.

Jose Feliciano

I thought I'd be spending my life making brooms, mops, chairs and things. That's fine for some blind people, but I wanted something more out of life. Music seemed the best way.

Jose Feliciano

My first memory of playing music was when I was 3 years old in Puerto Rico. I played percussion on a tin can behind my uncle, who played the cuatro.

Jose Feliciano

Playing guitar was a calling, but I never realized that it was going to be a career. It was just something I did out of love.

Jose Feliciano

Music made me feel like I was sexy. Music made me feel like I wasn't just a blind guy.

Jose Feliciano

Feliz Navidad' has interfaced the English and Spanish cultures to come together and after all, we're living in a multi-cultural world.

Jose Feliciano

In 1966 I recorded my first bolero album. I was about 18 years old then and I recorded it because I wanted my parents to know that I hadn't lost my identity of being Latino.

Jose Feliciano

I'm lucky that I can play all kinds of music, that it appeals to all of the generations.

Jose Feliciano

I never knew Mother Teresa, but I admired her, especially in this day and age when there aren't many heroes.

Jose Feliciano

I made history and nothing can besmirch that. Nothing can erase that.

Jose Feliciano

I was drawn to the guitar, and still am, because it struck me as the most soulful instrument.

Jose Feliciano