Leon Russell Quotes

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Leon Russell

Profession : Musician

Birth : April 2, 1942

The first canon of my religion is that you shouldn't try to convince anybody to believe like you do.

Leon Russell

I had a band with David Gates. There was just a lot of opportunity at that time. But I left for Los Angeles the week after I graduated high school, and I actually left to try to get into the advertising business. That was really why I went out to L.A. My music career was almost an accident.

Leon Russell

I was raised in the Methodist Church, which is a very Germanic, military kind of music they have there. I heard this other music on the radio: Pentecostal. That was right up my street.

Leon Russell

I was playing with George Harrison one time, and George loves takes. This song was up to Take 160. I said, 'George, do you want me to play the same thing or 160 different things?' It drove me crazy because, in general, I'm ready to play my part.

Leon Russell

I love bipolar people.

Leon Russell

I was on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis when I was 15 - I can't imagine not doing it. That's what I do.

Leon Russell

My chops have always been sort of weak, because the right side of my body was paralyzed a little bit. It was very limiting. I have to design stuff I can play, and it took me a year and a half to figure out how to hold a guitar pick.

Leon Russell

I had two parts of my body: my left side, which was strong and somewhat dumb, and the other side was weak and hard to control but perhaps smarter. It gave me a very strong sense of the duality of the plane that we live in.

Leon Russell

When I was born, I had a birth injury in my second and third vertebrae. It gave me what they called spastic paralysis, which is actually cerebral palsy.

Leon Russell

Sometimes one misses the sign posts as you're going down the road. They aren't as obvious as they become when you get to the end of the road, so to speak.

Leon Russell

I would have to say Sam Cooke is the one I admired most. His artistry and vocal, just the way he did it.

Leon Russell

Karen Carpenter was just a singularly amazing singer. There was just not anybody like her.

Leon Russell

My hobby is silence.

Leon Russell

I played on a few Frank Sinatra sessions.

Leon Russell

I've avoided the press and a lot of stuff that would have made me more visible just because it's not my style.

Leon Russell

I'm almost totally politically inactive.

Leon Russell

If everybody'd agree to quit using money, I'd be happy to play for free every day for awhile. But I don't play benefits or any kind of fund-raisers. I prefer to play at hospitals, for people who otherwise can't see us. But I can't see playing for causes, whatever the cause may be.

Leon Russell

I'm not so much of a person for causes, unless I specifically - for instance, if it's my cause, or some poor people's, I'll try to help. But you won't find me playing for any peace candidates - or any candidates.

Leon Russell

Both economics and politics are false sciences.

Leon Russell

I've always felt I struck out with Doris Day. Her son, Terry Melcher, was a producer I worked for at Columbia, and one day, he asked me to go to her house to play piano on a song she was doing. So I get there, and she has about 30 dogs running around the place - turns out she's a dog rescuer.

Leon Russell