Jack Bruce Quotes

The paradox of anti-Semitism is that it is invariably up to the Jews to explain away the charges. The anti-Semite simply has to make them.

— Jack Bruce

“We all have roles in life. I'm a dad, a husband, this and that, but basically I only feel justified in being alive when I'm on the stage.”

— Jack Bruce

Thankfully I'm not endlessly ambitious, but I have done some crazy ambitious things like buying an island off the west coast of Scotland in the late Sixties.

— Jack Bruce

“Growing up in inner-city Glasgow, it sometimes seemed to me money hadn't been invented.”

— Jack Bruce

I've always had money because of my early success with Cream, so I tell young musicians to aim to write their own material, because owning the composition rights makes a very big difference.

— Jack Bruce

“I think I'm an okay parent, but I'd put myself in the category of a musician-who-happened-to-become-a-father. I'm definitely not a father-who-happened-to-be-a-musician.”

— Jack Bruce

“Since I got my new liver, some of my tastes have changed. There are certain things I don't like anymore. I loved Indian food before but not now.”

— Jack Bruce

“I've always been interested in any kind of great music, and African music is, I think, the source of it all.”

— Jack Bruce

“Between now and then and I just felt it was ready and it was a long enough period gone by. I obviously didn't want to hurt anybody, you know. It was done out of a genuine memorial or tribute whatever you want to call it.”

— Jack Bruce

“Well all the big companies are really panicked by the internet thing and all that, and sales went down, although sales have gone up again in this country a bit and also the big companies, because they're so big, they need big sales really so they're not really interested.”

— Jack Bruce

“What I'm trying to do, in my own small way, is trying to bring African and Afro-Cuban rhythms into rock.”

— Jack Bruce

“At the age of 16 I started performing with a dance band in the evenings and began earning more money than my father, but he was pleased for me.”

— Jack Bruce

I know he played on the last record but I don't wake up in the middle of the night thinking of Eric Clapton.

— Jack Bruce

“Some musicians I know are incredible fathers. Like Keith Richards. A fantastic dad.”

— Jack Bruce

“Well I like everything but my first love has always been piano because when I started out there was a piano in my house and it was there so I just started tinkling on it really so it's always been my first love.”

— Jack Bruce

“I had a lot of vocal problems when I was younger. I don't know if it's down to leading a healthier lifestyle or what but my range has increased.”

— Jack Bruce

“I was 16 when I got a scholarship to study classical composition at a conservatory. By that time I had already listened to Scottish folksong with my mother, sung in church choirs, and had sung solo with Benjamin Britten conducting.”

— Jack Bruce

Bach is really the ultimate in bass players you know

— Jack Bruce

“If you haven't got a sense of humor you're making your life a hundred times harder. It doesn't matter what happens to you, if you can have a laugh about it, and don't take yourself so serious, you have the battles halfway won.”

— Jack Bruce

“I played upright bass. I wanted to write great tunes, play the bass, be a band leader, and smoke a big funny pipe like Charlie Mingus. So I went out and bought the pipe when I was around 18 or 19 years old. You know even women smoke a pipe in Glasgow. I worked with Carla Bley and she smoked a pipe, which I find fascinating.”

— Jack Bruce

I'm no politician but I do feel that a lot of damage was done because of misguided principals and America is still suffering from it.

— Jack Bruce

“I think people who basically do one thing like Eric Clapton is great. But I've always enjoyed playing different kinds of music and playing with different kinds of musicians because I find that really interesting, like learning and working with Kip Hanrahan. There's a great conga player called Milton Cardona and he taught me a lot of the nuances, he's a Santeria Priest and so he knows his onions as it were.”

— Jack Bruce

“I was a big fan of Gary Moore, he was my buddy and I miss him a lot. I loved his playing because you've got that passion; it was sort of a Celtic thing. The Irish and Scots they just go for it and not too worried about looking good. When I was in the states touring, I landed in Seattle to do a gig and one of the fans came to me and told me about Gary's death. It was very hard for me to carry on, it was awful.”

— Jack Bruce