Words matter. These are the best David Johansen Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I’m doing exactly what I want to do, and I’m having fun doing it.
We thought that’s the way you were supposed to be if you were in a rock ‘n’ roll band. Flamboyant.
I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock ‘n’ roll especially comes from blues.
Music is my love and to me acting is more mercenary. I don’t pound the pavements for roles: if it happens, it happens. I hate that auditioning thing.
Until I was six years old we lived in the projects, then my two brothers and three sisters and I moved to a three-bed that my mother’s father built.
I got arrested once on stage in Memphis for looking too much like Liza Minnelli.
You know when you read that someone has to leave a show or a tour because they had ‘nervous exhaustion’? Well, I had one of those and discovered that I was quite close to death. I always assumed that my lifestyle was going to take me at an early age, but when it was actually occurring I was, ‘Not yet!’ I pulled back.
Sometimes I’ve found that by getting into a certain drag, or a certain feeling, you can cast off your mortal coil and really do something. I don’t know if it’s important, but it’s something. It’s entertainment.
You try things on in life. You wear them for a while, and you see what’s next.
I mean, if you asked me what I’m going to be doing when I’m 85, I’d make a quick picture in my mind and, well, I’ll be singing.
I’ve been tired since I was 15.
I still do a lot of shows with Brian Koonin, but we haven’t had a full band lately.
Everything I’ve done I’ve just fallen into.
When I was a kid, I had some Charles Lloyd records.
I’m compelled to paint nearly every day. I just felt like making a painting, went out and bought paints and a canvas. Now it fulfills me creatively when I’m not doing music: it’s something you can do by yourself and it’s totally yours. It’s a great adjunct to my life.
The stuff that I dig, it’s usually got a soulful component to it. A singer that I really like. I might not understand the language that they’re singing in, but I’m really communing with this person.
When you’re a kid, you have this feeling like you’re indestructible. Your mortality doesn’t even occur to you. But as time goes by, you realize, ‘I better cut this out or that out if I want to continue to exist.’
I’ve been around the block a couple of times, and the guy I am now is the guy I like to be.
I’m afraid of me.
As I recall, my life as a child was so all-consuming that I barely had time to consider the future.
Sometimes when I hear my voice on tape, I’m like, ‘Who is that horrible man?’
I’m not impersonating anybody. I’m perfectly satisfied with what I am.
The first Latin music that blew my mind was bumba, which was a Puerto Rican beat.
It’s really a drag to do the same project over and over again.
Most bands are commercial enterprises. But I’m not in one of those bands.
