Robert Cray Quotations

Yes, I sing songs about relationships on the edge, relationships of all kinds, but remember I did not write them all, ... They are not all based on my experiences. Years ago, I wrote with Dennis Walker and Bruce Bromberg, who were 10 years older and divorced two or three times. They had great senses of humor, which is where lines like 'a boatload of lawyers just sank' came from. It is their stories on Strong Persuader, my breakthrough album from 1986. Sneaking out the window, 'Porch Light,' they are not my songs or lines. So, my life is not as miserable as some of the music makes it out to be. My wife Sue and I have been married for 15 years. She's an actor, but Sue gets the credit she deserves on some of my songs.

We did a video for the song "No One Special" on the CD, which my wife wrote the screenplay and directed. We haven't thought about it. We had an old one on VHS that came out a while back. As far as a new one, we aren't doing that right now.

We were coming back into the States from Canada when that all went down. I didn't come up with the idea. The idea came from the promoters. I said, "Yeah, let's do it." Seattle was the right place for that. That was the original home base for me, so we had a great turnout.

My idea when I sat down to write it was to put myself in the position of a young man wanting to do the right thing,

I gotta stay in the business! I gotta keep working! I mean, all of those awards and all that stuff is just something you put on your wall, man. The name of the game is to continue working. That's what it's all about. We're a working band. We can't just sit around and think, "Well, I don't have to work anymore".

We're obviously doing some of the newer things, but we go all the way back to the Bad Influence' album that was released in 1983, ... We like to mix it up.

I think that it's a good thing. I think it's great people can't put a tag to it, ... I think what we do is better off being called Robert Cray Band music.

I was playing at the Eugene Hotel, and after the show this lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to play in a film, ... I thought she was kidding.

We played a lot in Eugene, we played in Portland, we'd stop in Corvallis, ... We were doing that run from Vancouver, British Columbia, down to San Francisco.

Everyone started getting guitars, me included, ... I took guitar lessons for a year, but decided to teach myself the rest. We moved again in 1966, this time to Virginia, where I joined my first band in high school. We played soul and rock. 'Purple Haze' and Jimi Hendrix.

Curtis wore prescription Ray-Ban sunglasses, and he had a little growth of hair under his bottom lip. Right then, Belushi got the idea to start the Blues Brothers, basing his character on Curtis.

A lot of bands would be aching to be in the position we are.

I try not to put it in a box, ... Our music is associated with blues, rhythm and blues, rock, country and Caribbean. Everyone is writing. No one is holding back. It's Robert Cray music.

It's going slow, but it's a steady slow, ... That's basically what's going on throughout the record business.

I liked the Beatles because there was so much melody. Jimi Hendrix is still one of my heroes.

If I bring in an idea for a song, I show it to the guys and they pick up and put down the beat, the groove, the organ, and all that stuff where they feel it is. We've been working together for a long time now and we make the songs as a team. Everybody has a voice. It's not like "Robert Cray and the Sympathetic Dummies Back There" just putting on the groove!

The idea behind that was trying to get that spontaneity that comes with learning the song for the first time, ... Over-rehearsing kind of takes the fun out of recording it makes it 'perfect,' but lifeless.

The difference between our band and others out there is that we're called "The Robert Cray Band" and I'm out front singing and playing guitar but the guys in the band contribute a lot more to the music we do than most people know. They play on all of the studio recordings and we write together.

I pulled the Johnny character from the Jamaican Johnny Too Bad thing.

In order to play jazz, you have to be able to play the blues.

I just want people to see what I deem as a war for no reason, but only for greed.

I liked the Beatles because there was so much melody.

She was just another notch on my guitar.

Tell me a boat full of lawyers just sank.

Blues for me is having things not go your way - life, love, job, money, ... It is not about the oppression of my ancestors, who were trying to get back at the overseers. Blues is different for my generation.

Normally when we go in and write the songs we write, we think about doing a cover, but never a covers record. That would be, for us, a concept. We don't want to have a concept!

I don't see how anybody cannot be political in this day and age. There's so much going on and you have to be aware and you have to vote. Our lives are political.

Around midnight I heard them shout unfaithful one and I knew right then the axe was gonna fall. It's because of me.

Muddy Waters was, like, the king! He had a lot of adopted sons and daughters. I was just happy to be one of them.

I cook Italian, Thai and Vietnamese, I've always liked to cook.

All the blues greats took chances and developed their own style. They didn't copy.

I realized I was tired of singing about trees and flowers. I wanted to sing about real life. From then on, nobody could tell me anything was better than blues.