Top 22 Quotes & Sayings by John Fahey

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician John Fahey.

Last updated on December 18, 2024.

John Aloysius Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who played the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been enormously influential and has been described as the foundation of the genre of American primitive guitar, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of the music and its minimalist style. Fahey borrowed from the folk and blues traditions in American roots music, having compiled many forgotten early recordings in these genres. He would later incorporate 20th-century classical, Portuguese, Brazilian, and Indian influences into his work.

American - Musician | February 28, 1939 - February 22, 2001

Source: Wikipedia

I thought I'd be wasting my time to go to commercial record companies and make demos for them, because don't forget, I was doing what I was doing and nobody understood what I was doing.

John Fahey

I just want to be treated like an average guy.

John Fahey

So I learnt a few country western songs, I bought a chord book, and right away I started writing my own stuff, which nobody else did that, I don't know why.

John Fahey

When I play, I very quickly put myself into a light hypnotic trance and compose while playing, drawing directly from the emotions.

John Fahey

Well folks, that's about it for the show tonight.

John Fahey

Regarding fame, fortune and Oregon I do wish I had more money.

John Fahey

How can I be a folk? I'm from the suburbs you know.

John Fahey

Well I was on the one hand, the more I played the guitar the more I began to really love the guitar and to love virtually any kind of music that anybody played well on guitar.

John Fahey

As soon as the groupie finds out that you make errors in everyday life like everybody else does and that you are human, they turn on you and hate you.

John Fahey

See my father knew a lot about music, he played the piano and he would do theory and stuff like that, but I didn't learn anything from him, but I played that for him and he liked it a lot.

John Fahey

I had a big background in listening to classical music and I started trying to compose, like I was playing the guitar but I heard an orchestra in my head.

John Fahey

Well when I made my first record I thought it would be a good joke to have me on one side, have the lable say John Fahey on one side, and this guy Blind Joe Death on the other side.

John Fahey

But I say these things in an objective dispassionate manner because, you know, and I can't explain why, but being one of the greatest guitarists in the world simply is not very important to me.

John Fahey

Early Bluegrass is my favorite kind of music, not to many people know that.

John Fahey

I was using them as teachers for technique but I was never trying to be a folk.

John Fahey

From a social perspective, I am looking for friends, not acolytes.

John Fahey

The other thing in composition is opening up the unconscious.

John Fahey

I also know that I am not a great technician.

John Fahey

As for fame, it can go to your head and you can become full of yourself.

John Fahey

Being worshipped is a horrible experience.

John Fahey

More American young people can tell you where an island that the 'Survivor' TV series came from is located than can identify Afghanistan or Iraq. Ironically a TV show seems more real or at least more meaningful interesting or relevant than reality.

John Fahey

There is something about guitars—maybe something magical—when played right, which evokes past, mysterious, barely-conscious sentiments, both individual and universal.

John Fahey

Top 22 Quotes & Sayings by John Fahey

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