Johnny Rivers's Quotes

When I came back to California in the early '60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.

I think my favorite album was probably Realization.

I've got a Fender Concert amp from the '60s, the one Joe Osborn used. He played his bass through it.

In early '57, I bought a Fender Telecaster.

About two months into the Whisky, I borrowed some money and rented a remote recording truck.

But I always loved songs with great lyrics.

Even Woodstock turned out to be a disaster. Everybody was stuck in the mud and people got sick.

I accepted an offer to do a concert for the reopening of the Mall of Memphis.

I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.

I learned some chords and I started watching anybody I could, once I really got into it.

I loved playing and I was actually working two jobs.

I think after 1970 or so, after I sold Soul City, I took off for awhile and didn't do too many gigs.

I was working at this club in downtown L.A. from four to eight at night, just Eddie Rubin, the drummer, and I.

I'd gone through periods where I didn't work live performances for probably seven or eight months at a time.

In 1965, Gibson made the red one I use now, and a black one, which was the first black 335 they ever made.

Jack and I usually get together and sit around in the afternoons and start throwing ideas around.

My first really good guitar was a Gibson J-45.

One of the first groups we signed was the Fifth Dimension.

One thing will lead to another and somebody will come up with a riff or a line or something we build from.

The first amp I had back in the '50s was a small Fender.

The first time I went to New York, I met Alan Freed.

The web site and the Internet are a whole new ball game.

After that initial success, every chance we got we'd hire that remote recording truck and just record stuff at the Whisky because it was so inexpensive.