I was so enamored with the idea of being in show business so everything was bright to me. I mean, I didn’t think of it as being tough and things like that. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
I knew exactly what I was, and there was no hang-up with me. None whatsoever. The fact that the pigment of my skin maybe being lighter brown than other people of my race, maybe some of them, but you know our race has all colors. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
As a matter of fact they’d blacken us down. I guess there’s a reason that according to what the Caucasian wanted us to look like. He wanted us to look-if we were Black, then he had his idea of what we look like. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
I was still in school at the time and Cab was very popular and everybody was doing Cab Calloway so I did. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
When Byrd came out of there, he had written a lot things while he was in the hospital. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
Piano should be the one. Yeah, because that’s your basis. Everything is right there in front of you. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
It was my band. I organized the band and Dizzy was in the band. Dizzy was the first musical director with the band. Charlie Parker was in the band. But, no, no, that was my band. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
My youngest daughter sings. She’s going to be very good. She’s graduated from Music School and she’s been working down around and getting her feet wet, you know. I had her out with me for a year just showing her the ropes a little bit, but she’s going to be all right. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
Bud Johnson, God rest his soul of fame, a tenor saxophonist. Bud was always a big, big, big booster of mine and he always when I first met Bud in Pittsburgh when he came through there, he heard me sing and he wanted me to come to Chicago. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
L.A. is kind of laid back, but New York, everybody is out there for that buck, you know. Billy Eckstine Read Quote
