“When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it...” — J. J. Cale Quote

“When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it was so big at the time, I decided that I would pursue the songwriting thing. I was 34 years old at that time. I'd been down the pike and back before I had any success at all.”

“There are entertainers and there are musicians, and I never was an entertainer.”

“Working in bars back then, in the '50s, to get a job you had to play all kinds of music. There'd be customers come in and yell jazz tunes at you and yell rock 'n' roll tunes at you and polkas and rhythm and blues and country music.”

“I used to play quite a good lead guitar, R&B style. Clapton and BB King are heroes.”

“I decided early on that I wanted to be Michael Bloomfield, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton - not George Harrison.”

“Clapton asked my brother to play on his record. I thought that was the most wonderful thing in the world.”