John C. Reilly Quotes

One thing the blues ain't, is funny.

Some of the greatest blues music is some of the darkest music you've ever heard.

I would sing the blues if I had the blues.

American blues can make you sad.

The blues? Why, the blues are a part of me. They're like a chant. The blues are like spirituals, almost sacred. When we sing blues, we're singing out our hearts, we're singing out our feelings. Maybe we're hurt and just can't answer back, then we sing or maybe even hum the blues. When I sing, 'I walk the floor, wring my hands and cry -- Yes, I walk the floor, wring my hands and cry,'... what I'm doing is letting my soul out.

Once I was checking to hotel and a couple saw my ring with Blues on it. They said, 'You play blues. That music is so sad.' I gave them tickets to the show, and they came up afterwards and said, 'You didn't play one sad song.'

I don't try to be someone I'm not - I've always followed my heart and trance has always been my main sound.

I don't play pyrotechnic scales. I play about frustration, patience, anger. Music is an extension of my soul.

That internal ache is the starting point of country music. If it's a happy song and I can still feel sad in it? That's my favorite.

My favorite songs to sing have always been songs about regret. I don't know why that is, but to me, that's country music.

Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.

See, that's nothing but blues, that's all I'm singing about. It's today's blues.

Them pains, when blues pains grab you, you'll sing the blues right.

As a songwriter, it's very hard to listen to music that's not coming from the heart and soul, personally.

You could play the blues like it was a lonesome thing - it was a feeling.

Depending on what you allow, you can still get the blues, man. I'm still trying to figure out where the blues really lies, where the street is.

I've always loved the blues, ever since I was a kid. It has a depth to it that a lot of contemporary music doesn't have. It has pain and suffering in it, but funny stories, too. And it is built on storytelling, which is something I really love.

It's really easy to do sad; you just put on some sad music and write dramatically - everybody can do that.

A lot of country music is sad. I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times. It applies to music. Three chords and the truth - that's what a country song is. There is a lot of heartache in the world.

Everything comes out in blues music: joy, pain, struggle. Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance. It's about a man and a woman. So the pain and the struggle in the blues is that universal pain that comes from having your heart broken. Most blues songs are not about social statements.

If your depiction of loss doesn't make the reader feel loss, then you didn't depict it right.

My whole career will be about sad things. Happy songs about nightclubs and shots? That's not me.

The one thing I loved about blues and soul was the way they taught the world how to express such deep feelings.

I kept playing blues-based music all during the 1980s, and it was tough.

You have to find a sound that reflects what our souls feel like inside, how our bodies actually feel. That's why we made our own beats. We couldn't find a producer who could give us the feeling to match our lyrics.