I never build myself us. I let the people do that. I'm the most laid-back person, and I let them build me up. If you ask me, I say, 'I''m just a guy playin' some blues.

I don't do nothin’ I don't want to do.

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.

If they played more blues, people would just get it - they try to hold it back but just about can't hold it back now because the blues is really going.

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 want to play music when I want, write a song if I want or watch a baseball game if I want.

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