I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks.

I been doing the same things as in my younger days, when I was coming up, and now here I am, an old man, up there in the charts. And I say, well, what happened? Have they just thought up the real John Lee Hooker, is that it? And I think, well, I won't tell nobody else! I can't help but wonder what happened.

I don't do nothing I don't want to do.

Groups are corporations now. They have pension plans. Musicians have saw the daylight.

The way Will Moore taught me, and the way I play it, the blues is just something different.

Like you and your woman ain't gettin' along and you're in love. You can't sleep at nights. Your mind is on her - on whatever. You know, that's the blues. You can't hug that money at night. You can't kiss it.

I went on to Cincinnati. I had got a taste of the big cities and them bright lights. I stayed there until I was about 18 or 19 and then I went on to Detroit.