Imelda May Quotations

In my head, I consider 'No Turning Back' my 'dipping the toe in the water' album. It was mostly covers of favorite songs, and there were three originals in there. So, it feels like it was just my album to see what the temperature of the water was.

I like to escape; I like to write when I go on a walk - I'm kind of very fairy that way. I get inspired by the wind. Or when I daydream, that's when I write.

I don't do grey. I like my colour, my style.

If you ask me, rockabilly has had a raw deal for far too long. People never shunned the blues or jazz the way they do rockabilly. But it's the original punk-rock, and it changed the way people looked at music for ever.

People expect you to change when you become a mother, and of course my priorities changed when I had Violet. She's number one in my life and the best thing that ever happened to me, but I still have fun. I am still myself, but that is made out to seem like I am rebelling against motherhood.

I'm a normal consumer but try to do the best I can. I try to buy locally, and I mostly avoid supermarkets.

I'm in no hurry to get old. But when I do, I'll be out to enjoy every last minute. I see myself at 90 in some nursing home, waving my walking stick about as I jive to Gene Vincent records.

I don't see why women have to get naked to sell an album. It's crazy.

I've used a stylist twice, and that was when I didn't have time to go shopping or pick up an outfit for a photo shoot. I think you should dress yourself, have fun with it - it's only clothes.

I got my first leopard print coat when I was 15. I nearly got beat up, but I was happy with it.

Don't lie - when you are 105 years of age - on your deathbed, thinking, 'I should have done a few things!' I would like to think I tried as much as I could.

For me, rockabilly is very, very exciting music. It's electric and kind of wild, you know? It's 'make your hairs stand up on the back of your neck' kind of music.

I'm a big believer in 'pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start again.'

I always loved the bad girls in the movies. I loved Bette Davis; I loved Katherine Hepburn. I loved Ava Gardner.

I am not musically educated yet. I don't read - I make my own language that works for myself. But I play by ear.

I can talk a lot and not reveal anything; I would make a great politician.

I couldn't think of anything worse than hating your own music and having to play it every night. It would be a nightmare.

I don't tend to set out on huge world domination goals or have anything in mind. I just like to play. I like to gig a lot; I like to write music.

I enjoy music so much; it's such a passion in my life, and I hope that comes across.

I even sang once at the opening of a supermarket. You name it, I've done it.

I had a big time punk-rock phase and psychobilly phase. I used to go mad for the Guana Batz.

I have no big career plan. It is better for me that way.

I love people with strong convictions, because we are living in a very PC world. You can't crack a joke without it being in the headlines.

I never co-write. I've tried it before, and I just can't do it.

I started gigging when I was about 16, and I was way too young to be in the clubs.

I think I'd like to be one of those eccentric 80-year-old women.

I was one of those annoying kids that loves singing and entertaining.

I wash my face and put moisturiser on; I've never had a facial, and I don't get my hair or my nails done. I just do it all myself.

I worry about people who sell out to chase fame because when they get it, it might not be so satisfying.

I'm not a feminist that hates men by any means.

I'm not filthy rich! I'm not as rich as people think. It's funny, isn't it?

Music rules a lot of my life - I was bitten by the bug young.

Music was always part of my life - my mother says I came out singing. I wanted to be Gene Kelly - or Judy Garland.

Ooooh, I love Nashville! It seems like everywhere you walk, there's great music coming out of every wall.

Thrashing about on stage is my exercise for the day!

Up-tempo or slow tempo, I don't feel that one is better than the other.

When I heard Elvis and his 'Sun Sessions,' I went mad for it. I was about thirteen.

When I'm writing, I mean what I'm saying - there's a lot of me in each song.

Ireland and America, music-wise, are very closely related. The Irish came over with their fiddles in hand, and you can hear it in the bluegrass and rockabilly. I love it when music from different countries combine.

American audiences are great. They get what I am doing, but as my band will tell you, nowhere tops the Irish audience. They are just brilliant. They are very open, but the Americans and Spanish come a close second.

At school, I'd refuse to take part in biology lessons when animals were being dissected. One time, the teacher announced that we would be gassing worms. So I ran around the room, gathered up all the worms and set them free in the fields. I just loved animals and couldn't bear the thought of them suffering.

Everybody told me that if I insisted on doing rockabilly music, I'd never have a chance of selling any records. In fact, I lost count of how many people told me to ditch it all together, in favour, I guess, of sounding like everybody else.

I couldn't live on the singing at first, so I worked as a cleaner, in a launderette, in a garage, face painting and doing the windows of shops at Christmas, 'cause I had been to art college.

I don't think the music that I do is nostalgic in any way; I don't think about going back to nice, old-fashioned music. I'm certainly influenced by old music, but I want to bring it slap-bang up to today.

I got a great kick being in the Warner Bros. studios - that was really cool. I kept singing the 'Looney Tunes' theme song all day. I'm sure they haven't heard that one before.

I know exactly what it's like to not have a penny. I know exactly what it's like trying to get a job. I know exactly what it's like having bloody one tin of Ambrosia left in the cupboard. But I know I can survive.

I lost a boyfriend over Elmore James. You know that moment when you send mixtapes at fifteen? He sent me pop hits, and I sent him Elmore James, and I never heard from him again.

I love festivals in that people seem to let their hair down more. I love that people run from stage to stage. I love going as a performer because you get to see band that you wouldn't necessarily go see.

I love punk rock, The Clash, The Ramones, The Cramps. I love where it all came from, and music for my ears now, it has to have that same electricity, adrenaline and danger.

I love the shape of '50s fashion: the clothes are very flattering; they let you out in the right places. I love high heels, too, as I'm only five foot three, although I always tell people I'm five foot five.

I love to have no plans. It is amazing where your day can turn when you have no plans: meeting people or just going to a little pub on the side of the road.

I love to look back, but I don't want my music to be nostalgic. I want it to have the same vibrancy that the music I love had when it came out. I'm trying to get that electricity.

I never got formal training in music. I would just sit with my ear to the speaker and my hand on the needle. I'd listen to Wanda Jackson and think, 'How did she do that?,' and lift the needle and try it myself.

I never miss a vote; I think that's the power of the people. A lot of people fought and died for us to have votes, for women to have votes in particular - your vote is your one weapon.

I remember once doing a gig in Ireland, and there was a woman jumping around and screaming, 'I don't know what this is but I love it!' I thought that was a nice compliment.

When I tell people that I lost my baby weight through breastfeeding, they think I'm exaggerating. But it was brilliant for that. It is great for bonding with your baby. It is hard when no one else can feed her, but it was worth it for me. I loved it.

I started singing in church with my sister Maria when I was four, and I've been pretty much singing ever since. There's never been anything else for me to do.

I tried to be a goth for a while. I'd pour baby powder on my face and paint my lips black, but that didn't last long. I thought I looked cool at the time. But then you look back and wonder, 'Why did anyone let me out of the house looking like that?'

I was brought up with beautiful music - Nat King Cole and Glen Miller from my dad, and my mum loved Judy Garland and Doris Day - brilliant stuff. Through my brothers and sisters I heard David Bowie and The Specials, The Carpenters, Meatloaf and The Rolling Stones.

I was brought up with old-fashioned values. I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend until I finished school. I wasn't allowed to wear make-up: the nuns would scrub your face if they saw it.

I was from a tough neighborhood, and we didn't have a lot of money, but my dad worked hard, and my mom is good at budgeting things. That made me appreciate things.

I went to a Catholic all-girls school, and we would play cassettes of music we liked, and when it was my turn, they would laugh at my choices. I would play Billie Holliday, Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf, but it was fine; if I had to listen to their choices, they had to listen to mine.

I'd watch old movies with Judy Garland, Shirley Temple and Bette Davis and long to be part of that glamorous world. A lot of that glamour is gone now. In my own small way, I hope I'm bringing some of it back. But it would be great if I could inspire women to dress up.

I'm lucky to come from a very musical family. If you put a record on and turn the volume up, there's a pretty good chance you'll have a lot of people dancing very quickly.

I'm not comparing myself at all to him, but I like the idea that Ernest Hemingway always wrote about certain things he knew, he knew the ins and outs, back to fronts of what he was talking about. I love that as an inspiration for myself, to keep it true to what you know.

I'm not saying that women shouldn't pursue careers, but if it is going to be equal in the workplace, it should certainly pan out to be a little bit more equal in the home, too.

I'm on the road earning my money. I didn't get any million pound record deals. Not unless you're Jedward! I'm doing very well, but I still have a mortgage to pay off. So I'm on the road.

I'm sorry, but Juicy Couture tracksuits and Ugg boots don't move me in any way, shape or form. I refuse to wear them. Modern fashion doesn't appeal to me; the 1950s were better in every way, don't you think?

I'm the youngest of five - three girls and two boys. There was one record player for the seven of us. It was good for me, because I got to hear everyone else's music.

In 2008, I was in a London park when I came across a fledgling crow that had fallen from the top of an oak tree. A woman happened to be passing, and she said that she rescued animals, so she invited me back to her house. It turned out she was the wife of Jeff Beck. Jeff was there, and we ended up jamming together.

In a way, I'm lucky that I was never classically trained and never went to a music college. I'm just from a normal working class family and happened to get obsessed with music as a teenager.

'Love Tattoo' I recorded without a record company. I'd gotten turned down by the record companies - they said they didn't get me, which is fine, I suppose.

My parents never told me to get a real job. They always said, 'Go for it! If this is what you want to do, work hard.' They were always very supportive.

One thing that did get me into a lot of different types of music was when I was very young, the local record store went out of business and they were selling off all the vinyl. I remember going in - I was probably 16 or 17 and I'd just gotten a record player as a present. It was like hitting the jackpot: all these records for $3 apiece.

The Spanish and the American audiences are lunatics. They are very passionate and, like the Irish, they don't have as many inhibitions. If you are playing somewhere like Austria or Sweden, it takes them a little while to come out of themselves.

There have never been so many women in the music industry, but they're doing ballads and pop. Where's the new Joan Jetts and the Wanda Jacksons and the Debbie Harrys, all these strong women? I wanna be the woman that rocks.

When I was a teenager, I had a record company after me. They wanted me to be a pop act. They said they wanted me to be the next Sonia. I was 16 at the time. I said, 'No thank you.'

With great artists like Elvis, sometimes the songs weren't the greatest thing about him. When I tried to perform some of the songs, I noticed some of the tunes weren't all that brilliant, but it was the performance that sold them.

You have to change your life for yourself, and it's about the fun of getting there - sitting in the tour van, breaking down on the side of the road, you know, having a laugh with the guys in the band, making mistakes with nobody watching.

I would love to work with Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, B.B. King. I'd love to do something with Arctic Monkeys, Miles Kane, and The Last Shadow Puppets. If I got a call from Juliette Lewis or PJ Harvey, or Chrissie Hynde, that'd be a thrill.

I love to cook. I love having friends over and family. I am definitely a feeder - I feed everybody. I am jumping around the kitchen like a crazy woman.

There's no point in bringing together a talented band if you don't let them do their thing.

I like the idea that Ernest Hemingway always wrote about certain things he knew, he knew the ins and outs, back to fronts of what he was talking about. I love that as an inspiration for myself, to keep it true to what you know. I'm always writing little lines and saving them for later.

My music is a mix of everything, mostly my own life. I just write about things that mean something and that I can write about. There's no point in pretending.

Oh my god, it's good to be alive!