Sixto Rodriguez

I like to say that I do covers of my own songs. And I have about a dozen bands all over the world. That's no exaggeration. I have a South African band, an Australian band, Swedish bands, English bands, American bands. They're all notable musicians, too.

I've had such an ordinary life.

My dad, he was my role model - my mom died when I was three - and the way we honor our parents is remembering their heritage.

The earth is going to survive, it's the people that aren't.

The social realism of ' Establishment Blues' or 'Like Janis,' are what I chose to use to express what was happening in the U.S. and what was happening to me personally.

Was 'Crucify Your Mind' dedicated to anybody? No, it was a generalization. 'A Most Disgusting Song' is like that, too.

I'm Mexican, and we do a lot of singing, and it was my brother's guitar that I'd practice on, and he would say, 'Who's that playing my guitar?'

I play by ear - I'm self-taught. And so everything I do is through that technique.

I did a lot of heavy-lifting - construction, demolition, that kind of thing. Dusty, dirty work.

You can't get around certain stuff, whether it's in Darfur or on your block at home. What makes us political is your home turf, your family, your life space. You walk down the street, and automatically a human being is territorial, and political happens in that.

I loved Jimmy Reed, the chord changes, the lyrics.

I'm a musical political, I tend to stick to what I see happening outside my front door.

Rock 'n' roll is a crazy world, and it's how things work out you can't predict.

Music is a living art. You re-create it.

I love my country. It's just the government I don't trust.

About love, don't be a silent partner. And be gentle with your anger.

My family, we're indigenous people from San Luis Potosi in Central Mexico. My father moved to Detroit and brought all of us because the automobile companies were paying great wages.

I was ready for the world. I don't think the world was ready for me.

I got my style. I got my own way of playing. I'm a musician. I'm self-taught.

You either live under a rock or you walk in the sunshine. That's pretty much how it goes.

All my life, I never gave up on music and though there was a lot of disappointment for some that the commercial thing never happened, it has never been a disappointment for me.

In the '60s and '70s, a protest song was a genre in music.

Many of us come into the world with a clenched fist, but we all leave with an open hand.

I'm not getting old, I'm getting dead.

I live below my means. I think that's a good discipline because you never can tell.

In Detroit there are a lot of houses they are going to demolish because no one is taking care of them.

Solomon was a musician and David was a musician, so it's a profession that I take seriously.

I renovate homes and buildings and residences in Detroit.

Entertainment news doesn't interest me.

I don't mind going out to do my shows but I can still retreat back into my own private world, you know? And that is very key.

My work is more to me than just music.

I've been a candidate for office at least eight times. A couple times for mayor, state representative, city council.

The Isley Brothers, there's a group that stays together because they're a family band.

Musicians want to be heard. So I'm not hiding. But I do like to leave it there onstage and be myself, in that sense. Because some people carry it with them.

I just want to be treated like an ordinary legend.

You want to know the secret of life? It is to breathe in and out. And the mystery of life? You never know when it is going to end.

I wasn't very successful at running for office.

You never throw away your work clothes. There is always something to do in the house.

I'm a lucky man.

Beware of current truths.

I sing about social issues, not the boy-girl stuff.

I stopped chasing the music dream back in '74.

Some want to do pretty songs with pretty words about pretty people, but that ain't me.

I have fun with words.

I don't much listen to music as I study it: who's doing what, who wrote it.

I have a sloppy style of playing guitar. A percussive style. Unique in fact.

I like people who can write and sing, and play an instrument.

Where other people live in an artificial world, I feel I live in the real world. And nothing beats reality.

I chose music and that's what I do.