In the late ’70s, I had a band – the David Johansen band, for lack of a better name – and I started collecting, not records, but tapes from people I knew who had jump-blues records. David Johansen Read Quote
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. David Johansen Read Quote
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. David Johansen Read Quote
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. David Johansen Read Quote
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. David Johansen Read Quote
As I recall, my life as a child was so all-consuming that I barely had time to consider the future. David Johansen Read Quote
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. David Johansen Read Quote
I don’t really like to sit around the house listening to my own records. They’re not that good. David Johansen Read Quote
