As a kid, I loved any guitarists, whether it was Elvis Presley, Lonnie Donegan, Chuck Berry or even the cowboy guitarists like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. The image of the guitar appealed to me.
I hate running. I know I’m curvier – I know I’m small, but I’m not ripped. But I make a choice to be that way. I realize my arms aren’t as toned as Halle Berry’s but I don’t want them to be.
There are projects I’ve done, such as ‘Queen,’ where I played Halle Berry and Danny Glover’s son, where I’m so extremely proud of the work that I did that I will sit down and watch that any time.
It’s great that Mary Berry got a primetime TV show, but I don’t think there are enough women chefs on TV.
We would not have rock and roll without Chuck Berry, and when I first heard Chuck Berry, I fell in love with that music, and when I saw him, I changed my whole career trajectory that I was on as a kid.
What we admit to is being a rock n’ roll band. From day one, I was a big Chuck Berry fan.
Chuck Berry told me if it wasn’t for Louis Jordan, he wouldn’t have probably ever even got into music. That Louis Jordan changed everything and made him want to become a musician.
My parents had this massive record player in the living room, a ‘blue spot grand’ they called it… it used up an entire rainforest to make this thing, and it had all these records in it. Some were rock, some were reggae, but a lot was blues – Ray Charles, Chuck Berry and all that stuff.
Go back to the very beginning, when we first started playing in local pubs. We used to play Chuck Berry covers. Every now and then, we’d slip in one of our own songs, and we found that we were getting away with it – nobody seemed to know these were original tracks.
Growing up, I never listened to English music. I was more into Motown, as well as early rock n’ roll like Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
I want to meet Denzel Washington when I go to the Oscars. Every man wants to see Halle Berry in person. And, you know, Dolly Parton… I wouldn’t mind seeing Dolly Parton. She’s from Tennessee, I’m from Tennessee.
I saw Berry in concert a couple of times in the late ’70s – and like almost every North American male of a certain age, I went because a friend was hired by Berry that very day to be part of the legend’s backup band.
Maybe it is true what they say, that playing these Chuck Berry songs is easy. But try singing them. The words come out hard, like bullets.
I realize my arms aren’t as toned as Halle Berry’s but I don’t want them to be.
When I was young, people used to be like, ‘You look just like Halle Berry – out of Losing Isaiah.’ I don’t care; she was still beautiful in that movie!
I worshipped Berry Gordy for the creative dreams he had made come true.
My influences were Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry.
I’d want to have Gisele Bundchen’s body. Even though she’s tall and skinny, she does have curves… and I think that’s hot. Halle Berry also is kind of amazing.
I really only knew the name Berry Gordy growing up, but I didn’t know what he looked like or anything about him.
I was inspired by the classic rock radio of the Seventies. They separated Chuck Berry and the Beatles from the Led Zeppelins and Bostons and Peter Framptons of the time. In many ways, classic rock became bigger than mainstream rock.
I think Berry Gordy is a genius, I really do, and it’s not a word I throw around lightly. But with all that comes the idiosyncratic behavior of a self-made, talented, creative person, and that’s not easy to come up against.
Venues had segregated seating – but when Chuck Berry fused together blues, boogie-woogie and country music, it caused people not to be able to sit still. They bounced up out of their seats, knocking over ropes, dancing together.
I’m not reinventing the wheel here. I’m not Chuck Berry or Bill Monroe. Guys like that are from outer space.
After Chuck Berry died, it seemed web sites popped up like mushrooms to show where he’d taken the guitar introduction to ‘Johnny B. Goode’ from to prove that his music was nothing new, that it was only ignorance, or vanity, that led his listeners to think that not only was the music different – they might be, too.
One of my big inspirations was Chuck Berry, and his playing was always about the rhythm and the lyrics. So I’ve always been that way in my playing, really.
From the time I was 12 until I was 21, Chuck Berry was my favorite artist.
That’s the misconceptions that people have, that Chuck Berry went to jail. They’re just totally wrong. It might have said something in the large papers in the bigger city headlines and things. But, you take a look at any of the local papers, and you will see that I was acquitted. I never went to jail.
My influences are, number one, hand to Jesus, Halle Berry. I think that she’s so brilliant, and I love everything that she does, even ‘Catwoman.’
Halle Berry’s style is simple and elegant.
I was playing with Chuck Berry, who sounded like an English teacher. Did you ever listen to his records? He pronounces every word.
I’m not going to dinner with somebody who eats like a bird, nor do I want to eat like a bird. But its weird: In our business, I’m a size 2 and considered curvy. Its important to remind young women, ‘Listen, even skinny girls have cellulite, even Halle Berry has cellulite, and what you see in photos isn’t totally real.’
I certainly think Halle Berry’s a wonderful role model. She’s a terrific stepmother and has shown that in so many beautiful ways and has made such enormous strides for women culturally and such great successes as an actress and philanthropist.
I don’t look like Halle Berry. But chances are she’s going to end up looking like me.
Chuck Berry had a very profound impact on me. The man was a genius.
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