QUOTES by Jose Feliciano
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I'm not like other guitar players. In fact, I'm not even like most acoustic players because I use the nylon-string acoustic. I do play steel-string and the electric guitar, too, because I love rock 'n' roll and guitarists like Jimi Hendrix. But my bread and butter has always been the nylon-string.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
People are really surprised by the fact that I keep in touch with the latest trends rather than retreating to the distant past.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I've been a fan of Elvis since I was 11, so for me, it was a real thrill to make an album of all my favorite Elvis songs.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I don't think Hank Greenberg thought of himself as the first Jewish baseball player - he was a baseball player who happened to be Jewish. I'm an artist who happens to be Latin.
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I went through the immigration thing. But when I got to New York it wasn't so tough for me. I went to school. I went to P.S. 57, then I went to the Lighthouse for the Blind on 59th St. I guess being blind is a great leveler.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
Now everybody has been doing the national anthem in their own style, but in 1968 I was the one that took the heat. It cut my career for quite a while.
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I'm very proud being Puerto Rican. I'm American. That is what America is made of - people from different lands.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
Pioneers will always get the stones, when everyone later gets the accolades.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
One thing about computers and iPhones is they're making people mentally lazy.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I'm kind of iffy on the Latin Grammys because I think we fought so hard, for example, to get the American side of the Grammys to open categories for us... But I support the Latin Grammys in the sense I'm glad that we have them.
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The fact I'm blind has been a great help to my career. If I'd been sighted I'd have played baseball and got into trouble like all other kids on my block.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
In 1970, my label decided I should do a Christmas album and I put a bunch of tunes together. We couldn't decide what to call it and so I said 'Why not just say Merry Christmas in Spanish? Feliz Navidad.' They said, 'That's cool, Jose, but we need a title song.' So I just sat down and started to play.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
God did not want me to be a blind beggar on the street, alone and bitter. He gave me music, first to be my companion and then to be my salvation.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I just happened to be Latino, and like any artist, I was trying to forge a career. If I opened doors for others, that's great, but nobody starts out with those aspirations.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I was growing up at a time when music was growing and changing so fast. I had learned all the big band sounds of the 1940s, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey. But then along came Chuck Berry, Les Paul, Fats Domino and I figured out how to make their music as well.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I know Ritchie Valens in 1959 had 'La Bamba' but to be totally Spanish - because, you know, Ritchie didn't speak Spanish - but to be a total Latin artist like myself, to be out in a field where there weren't any categories for Latinos... I felt good that I was maybe - I didn't know it at the time - but I felt good that I opened the door.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
Playing guitar was a calling, but I never realized that it was going to be a career. It was just something I did out of love.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
As a Hispanic American, this country has done a lot for me, and I think that people have to be more grateful for what they have in this country.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
The day I stop learning and I don't try to make myself better on the guitar, that's the day I hang it up and say, 'Goodbye.'
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
In 1966 I recorded my first bolero album. I was about 18 years old then and I recorded it because I wanted my parents to know that I hadn't lost my identity of being Latino.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I mean, it wasnt like I had said to myself beforehand, 'OK, I'm gonna go out there and sing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in the weirdest way possible and cause a commotion.' I just sang it the way I felt it I sang it the only way I could.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
It taught the English to speak Spanish and it taught the Spanish to speak English. If we had more songs such as that, it would solve the immigration problem in a hurry. But there can't be another 'Feliz Navidad.'
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I'm lucky that I can play all kinds of music, that it appeals to all of the generations.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
Some people wanted me deported - as if you can be deported to Puerto Rico.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
It's a wonderful thing to play with symphony orchestras - I've played with many - but it's really special in Israel because you have so many great musicians.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I have no regrets, though I was the first artist to stylize the national anthem, and I got a lot of protests for it. I have no regrets. America has been good to me. I'm glad that I'm here.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I take pride in the fact that I was the first Hispanic artist to really crack the English market.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I did whole Latin albums and it was like Beatlemania for me in the Latin world, the screaming girls, not being able to leave the hotel, at the airport met by screaming fans. That was something!
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I taught myself until I was about 16. And then I studied classical guitar with some teachers.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
One day I heard Ray Charles on the radio and I found out he was blind. I thought, 'You know what, if there's room for Ray, there might be room for Jose.'
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
Very few guitarists play nylon-string. They don't know how to get the sound out of them. That's something I've spent a lot of time on.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I have genuine respect for women and I want to win their respect. I don't want them to look at me and say, 'Oh, another man with the same attitudes as most men.'
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
I didn't mean for it to cause such a furor, but I was the first guy to ever do the national anthem with a guitar. Everyone else had the big brass band. Nowadays it's tracks that they sing to, but in my day, we had no tracks. And I was the only orchestra that I knew that was the best orchestra and that was me and my guitar.
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I felt bad about the controversy because they stopped playing my songs on American radio stations. But there was nothing wrong with what I did. Now everybody sings the national anthem the way they want.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
My parents did not want us to lose our culture and our language. And that was a good thing.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano
When I did the anthem, I did it with the understanding in my heart and mind that I did it because I'm a patriot. I was trying to be a grateful patriot. I was expressing my feelings for America when I did the anthem my way instead of just singing it with an orchestra.
Quote by -Jose Feliciano