Sharon Jones quotes:

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  • Me and the Dap-Kings, the whole band is playing a wedding band in 'The Wolf of Wall Street.'

  • When I first played at the Apollo, the owner didn't even know who Sharon Jones was. The Apollo had never seen so many white people coming uptown.

  • I was onstage one night and was singing. I hit one note, and I just doubled over. It was like being punched hard in the back. I couldn't put my back up on the plane seat because of the pain. I got massages, thinking it was muscle spasms. The doctor told me at the time that it was my pancreas. I didn't even know.

  • I never got to meet Michael Jackson, and he's gone - so to be on stage with Prince was like if Michael... you know what I'm saying? And Prince, he's just such a warmhearted guy. He's so humble. He's such a spiritual man. I like his style.

  • For me, music is my joy. It's my happiness. As long as this medicine, this chemo is in my body, I didn't have my love, my joy.

  • I knew I was going to be famous later in life.

  • I'd love to get into one of Tyler Perry's movies - play a little role, have a little character. I don't care. But more than two lines! More than two words!

  • I miss my hair, but I feel like going out there with some fake braids wouldn't be right. I want to be the most genuine performer I can be.

  • As for meat, I'm not going to become vegetarian. I'm telling you that right now. I want me a steak. I want me a pork chop. I want me a lamb chop, even a piece of duck every once in awhile. We used to have ham and salami, all that crazy stuff. I can't eat processed food. I've got to find local farmers and get natural foods.

  • At first, they told me it was just bile-duct cancer, but once they went in, they removed the gallbladder, the head of my pancreas, and a foot-and-a-half of my small intestine, and built me another bile duct and connected it to my stomach. It turned out to be pancreatic cancer, stage two, so, very aggressive.

  • Phish is such a good band; they just make stuff up as a jam band.

  • The only thing I wanted to accomplish was to finally get recognized by the music industry. If you know the awards, answer me this question: Do you see an award for soul music? No. They have R&B, funk, hip-hop and all sorts of contemporary things.

  • I don't know why I keep saying this, and I don't know why I keep using their names... And I'm not dogging them. I'm not slandering them. I'm not saying they are bad musicians. But how can Taylor Swift or Justin Timberlake win for R&B and funk? They are pop singers.

  • Once I retire and slow down, I don't want to be in New York. I want to be somewhere near a lake or a pond, so that on my days when I have nothing to do, I can go fishing.

  • I'm lookin' at these Disney characters, these young girls coming out looking like, little whores.

  • If I can't pronounce it, I don't want to put it in my body. Everything to me now is organic, natural, right from the farm.

  • [I've worked as a guard at Rikers Island] from 1988 to 1990.

  • Everything on my body turned real dark. My toes, under my feet, inside my mouth, under my tongue - I just turned really dark. I'm still here, but it's gonna take a while to get back to normal. Chemo kills all the good cells along with the bad.

  • I think I bring the songs that aren't about me or related to me to life. It's like the song 'How Do I Let A Good Man Down?' Let me tell you, I didn't write that song - because if I have a good man, I ain't going to let him down.

  • Every time I do a gig, my goal is getting new fans.

  • I sing this song in church - 'I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me.' I got a feeling that all these shows, all this everything, is part of my blessing. And in my heart, I know I'm going to do every show, and everything is going to be OK.

  • People buy my albums, and I love my albums when I do them because we try to record live with that same energy, but I can never get the energy that I have when I'm live.

  • I love the smaller clubs. I love the theaters. I love the festivals. There are things I don't like. At certain theaters, people can't get up and dance.

  • As for me, I rarely write a song. But when I do write a song, like "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects," which came to me at three a.m. one morning, on a whim - I get a percentage.

  • I'm grateful to be alive, because I really did not think I was going to be alive, onstage performing songs.

  • My goal for these next few years, for the next forever, is to try and keep positive things around me. If somebody is coming at me with negative stuff, just back away from me.

  • Until the '90s, major labels were looking for a certain look. This Sony guy told me I was 'too black, too fat, too short, and too old.' Told me to go and bleach my skin. Told me to step in the background and just stay back. I had the voice, but I didn't have the looks.

  • I'm not trying to be a pop singer.

  • I chose not to put a wig on. The reason why I chose to come out with the cancer thing is because there's somebody out there who can see that all sickness isn't unto death. That it's something you can't change at that point in time, so you just got to go with it. Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of looking at yourself.

  • As for meat, I'm not going to become vegetarian. I'm telling you that right now. I want me a steak. I want me a pork chop. I want me a lamb chop, even a piece of duck every once in awhile. We used to have ham and salami, all that crazy stuff.

  • Being with the Dap-Kings is like being an athlete.

  • Doctors removed my gallbladder and pancreas, which are supposed to break down sugar and alcohol.

  • Everything I've done and everything I've gained in my life has been with my music.

  • God's eye is on a sparrow. And I know, oh, yes I know, he watches over me.

  • I can't eat processed food.

  • I don't want to be home just taking medicine and waiting to die, you know? That's not something I'm about.

  • I just want to be able to get onstage and move and move around.

  • I just want to give my love to God.

  • I know for one thing that alcohol will have no more part in my life.

  • I never took any kind of vocal lessons or teachings of how to - I never even took piano lessons. And a voice just came to me and said, go play the piano in the church...

  • I often call Daptone the Motown and Stax of today. But in some ways it's different. At Motown, a lot of the musicians didn't get recognized, music got stolen, and people didn't get paid. Or the label would just throw them a pinch of money for their songs. That is one thing we're not doing. Anything anyone writes here, we get a percentage.

  • I really can't wait to dance with Ellen DeGeneres!

  • I remember going into a raggedy studio, still with my work uniform on. At the time, I was driving money trucks for Wells Fargo, so I had my gun and hat, which weighed me down in the heat. It was 97 degrees here in New York, and they had to turn the air conditioner off because it was too loud. So, I say, "Damn, it's hot in here!" That's how we came up with the song, "Damn, It's Hot." It was from our soul. We just got together, sang and made our own lyrics.

  • I remember my sister and I - my big sister would get up on her chair in the kitchen and sing Mary Wells' "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard for One." It was 1966, and I was 10 years old.

  • I sing because I'm happy.

  • I tell the songwriter's story. When I read people's lyrics, I'm so amazed. I want to tell this story and make it part of my life. I usually can't write lyrics down, but I can sure tell that story. You've got to make people feel the hurt and love in each song.

  • If God watches over a little sparrow, you know, if he takes care of the birds, a little sparrow. Here I am, one of his children, you know, he got so many of us down here. Human beings that send our faith up and believe. And if he watch over a sparrow, I know he watches over me.

  • I'll be staying in touch and keeping my fans and friends updated on my progress. I'm looking forward to getting back on the road to give the people what they want,

  • I'm blessed to be in an environment where people are sincere.

  • I'm coming back to give the people what they want.

  • I'm going to dress a little different. Those frilly dresses I used to wear on stage, that was the old me.

  • I'm going to keep on keeping on as long as I've got my health and strength, and God gives me that will to do it.

  • I'm not going to sing something if it doesn't make sense to me, or if it makes me look like I'm begging someone or I'm weak, because that's not me.

  • I'm not planning on singing too late. Maybe another eight or 10 years is enough before I retire. It would also be great to revisit all these stunning places around the world where I have toured.

  • I'm singing, you know, because I'm happy and I'm free.

  • I've got these five-pound weights and a treadmill in the living room. I work out the other parts that have affected my voice: my diaphragm - doctors took mine out in surgery - and my lungs. I've got to build back my legs, too, so I can run across that stage. I've got a lot to do, but I'm going to get out, sing songs and tell the stories.

  • I've got to find local farmers and get natural foods.

  • Juicing has helped me bring my pressure down. Organic natural foods, too.

  • Maybe I won't have as much energy. And maybe the highs in my voice won't be what they used to be. But exercise is helping me pace myself.

  • Music is my happiness, my joy, and when my body wasn't right I couldn't get into my music without being healed, without being healthy.

  • My fans have written me such kind emails. My management at Daptone helped me heal, too. I'm in a good place.

  • My friend Megan Holken is a nutritionist. I have spent some time at her home upstate in Sharon Springs, where she told me how to eat right and cook right.

  • Not only do I say, get up and get out, I tell the cancer to get up and get out. And if you don't get up and get out, I'm going to shout you out. And I get to shout.

  • Play with me and you play with fire.

  • Record designers marvel on that stuff. They go back and look at old covers, then make new ones.

  • Singing is my life. And when I can do that, that's when I'm free. That's when I'm at my happiest, I'm at my most.

  • Some people can sit down and write a song, but they can't go on stage like I can.

  • Sometimes people look at our covers and say, "That looks just like that other cover." I say, "And?" It reminds them of a cover from way back when. If you know the cover, then pull it out and compare it. I don't care. It's supposed to bring back memories.

  • There ain't no way I'm going to be droppin' nothing. If I was in my twenties, maybe. But now I try to keep it looking decent. I don't want to expose too much of my bare ass.

  • This album [Give the People What They Want] has almost been in the making for almost three years now. When we first began on it, my mother was sick. When she passed away, I got on stage and played that night. The music helped take me away.

  • To be honest, I didn't think I would be here for this album [Give the People What They Want]. I thought I was going to die. When the doctor came in by himself and told me I had cancer, it was frightening. He told me he got it and there would be six months of chemo. I really thought people would be promoting my record without me here to enjoy it. But I'm here.

  • We chose it's name [Give the People What They Want] a while ago, long before the cancer. But I can't think of a more fitting title.

  • When I got sick this past summer, I couldn't - my mind just wasn't on music. The rest of the band understood. But once October came, I felt ready to get back again.

  • When I'm on tour, I don't see these spots as much as I'd like. I'm just in, I perform, then I'm out. I hope to spend years sightseeing, then more years after that.

  • You know a man can play the part of a saint just so long for a day comes when his true, his true self unfolds.

  • Youth. The fact that, in the mid-'90s, guys like Lee Fields gave me and all these young people the chance to do backup. I was in my 30s, but some of those guys were still teenagers. Others were 22 and 23 - babies, all of them.

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