Now that I'm gettin old enough to get some money, I'd like to have some money. I don't get much made, I need to conquer a big chunk of money. Not quit playin but quit playin so hard.

There was a time when I had the blues - I mean I really had it bad. I couldn't pay my light bill and I couldn't pay my rent and I really had the blues. But today I can pay my rent and I can pay the light bill and I still got the blues. So I must been born with 'em... That's my religion - the blues is my religion.

I was always singing the way I felt, and maybe I didn't exactly know it, but I just didn't like the way things were down there-in Mississippi.

Man, you don't know how I felt that afternoon when I heard that VOICE and it was my own VOICE.

Now that I'm gettin old enough to get some money, I'd like to have some money. I don't get much made, I need to conquer a big chunk of money. Not quit playin but quit playin so hard.

I got that first record out, it came out in '47... Then my name began to ring around. I began to take over. From that point, I tell you, Chicago was in my hand, all the more time that those guys had to listen to me.

Memphis was almost like going to California. Beale Street was the black man's street.