Leon Russell

“I don't think there's any danger of me playing Indian music. However, I did a song of George Harrison's 'Beware of Darkness' that was kind of like that. That was an illusion. I was playing that on a thumbtack piano, and Jim Gordon was playing tablas. He's an amazing player. That was as close to India as I ever got.”

“I have damaged nerve endings on the right side, so my piano style comes from designing stuff I can play with my right hand. And some of it effectively mimics classical stuff.”

“I'm not as aware of categories in music as some people are. To me it's just music. I'm interested in all kinds of music.”

“I scarcely talk to reporters at all.”

“All the time I had my success, I didn't know what I was doing. I struggled and struggled and hacked things out without any insight as to why.”

“California always struck me as a police state.”

“All my writing takes place during the recording of the master tapes. I never do have songs when I start up an album. I actually write them while I record.”

“I've avoided the press and a lot of stuff that would have made me more visible just because it's not my style.”

“Watching yourself on film, if you've never watched yourself on film before, you want to go crawl into bed and stay there for a week.”

“When you play with another piano player, it's just second nature to play the parts that need to be played.”

“I like that old style of country music - it seems to me that a lot of the modern country music is rehashed rock n' roll.”

“I was playing with George Harrison one time, and George loves takes. This song was up to Take 160. I said, 'George, do you want me to play the same thing or 160 different things?' It drove me crazy because, in general, I'm ready to play my part.”

“I started playing in nightclubs when I was about 14 in Oklahoma.”

“I had a band with David Gates. There was just a lot of opportunity at that time. But I left for Los Angeles the week after I graduated high school, and I actually left to try to get into the advertising business. That was really why I went out to L.A. My music career was almost an accident.”

“My whole family's been involved with music, and it's been so since the minstrel days.”

“I wish I had gone into industrial plumbing. That's a joke.”

“I love bipolar people.”

“I was afraid of the press.”

“I'm always having people come up to me and say I saved their life - but I don't remember it!”

“I was with my band at a karaoke bar in Japan when it was very big there, and they got up and made fools of themselves without practicing properly. I didn't understand why they were doing that. It was like they were making fun of the genre by performing badly. But I didn't get up and sing, so I don't know what it feels like.”