afro-art-chick:

“You can’t fake this music. You might be a great singer or a great musician but, in the need, that’s got nothing to do with it. It’s how you connect to the songs and to the history behind them.”

“What happens is, when I perform, I’m somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.”

“I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.”

“Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don’t know what I’m sorry about. I don’t.”

“I only sing what I feel - R&B, blues, gospel, and rock and roll, the music that came out of the South.”

“The only time that I am really truly happy - when I feel at my best - is when I’m on the stage.”

Happy 74th Birthday to legendary singer Jamesetta Hawkins, better known as Etta James (b. January 25, 1938)