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Sounds like the blues are composed of feeling, finesse, and fear.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

There aren't many artists who can feel sorry for me.

I don't wanta do any Blues or any sad songs.

I have heartaches, I have blues. No matter what you got, the blues is there. 'Cause that's all I know - the blues. And I can sing the blues so deep until you can have this room full of money and I can give you the blues.

To me, the blues is an infection. I don't think it's necessarily a melancholy thing; the blues can be really positive and I think I think anyone and everyone can have a place for the blues. It need not always a woeful, sorrowful thing. It's more reflective; it reminds you to feel.

Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

I've spent my life hearing people trying to apologize for music.

For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness.

There's no way in the world I can feel the same blues the way I used to. When I play in Chicago, I'm playing up-to-date, not the blues I was born with. People should hear the pure blues - the blues we used to have when we had no money.