Wes Montgomery Quotes

"I don't know whether it was his [Charlie Christian's] melodic lines, his sound or his approach, but I hadn't heard anything like that before. He sounded so good and it sounded so easy, so I bought me a guitar and an amplifier and said now I can't do nothing but play! Really, welding was my talent, I think, but I sort of swished it aside." - Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"I got a standard box. I don't never want nothing special. Then if I drop my box, I can borrow somebody else's." - Wes Montgomery (his "standard box" was the hollowbody Gibson L5-CES - cutaway electric Spanish)

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"You know, John Coltrane has been sort of a god to me. Seems like, in a way, he didn't get the inspiration out of other musicians. He had it. When you hear a cat do a thing like that, you got to go along with him. I think I heard Coltrane before I really got close to Miles [Davis]. Miles had a tricky way of playing his horn that I didn't understand as much as I did Coltrane. I really didn't understand what Coltrane was doing, but it was so exciting the thing that he was doing." - Wes Montgomery

source: Interview with Downbeat (1961)

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"Regardless of what you play, the biggest thing is keeping the feel going." - Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"I never practice my guitar... from time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat." - Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"Well, I got pretty good and went on the road with a group. We starved. At that time I didn't realize that you'd work one gig in Kansas City, the next in Florida and the next gig will be in Louisville. You know, a thousand miles a night. That was really rough, man." - Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"I've really gone into business since I got the 6 string, which was like starting all over." - Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"A lot of places we go, when they see the organ coming in, they're expecting rock and roll, but after they hear us play they like it. To me, guitar cuts through-it carries more than organ. But organ has got more guts." - Wes Montgomery