Quotes by 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.
• When I play, I very quickly put myself into a light hypnotic trance and compose while playing, drawing directly from the emotions.
• 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.
• 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.
• Well folks, that's about it for the show tonight.
• 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.
• Regarding fame, fortune and Oregon I do wish I had more money.
• I was using them as teachers for technique but I was never trying to be a folk.
• 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.
• The other thing in composition is opening up the unconscious.
• As for fame, it can go to your head and you can become full of yourself.
• I just want to be treated like an average guy.
• Being worshipped is a horrible experience.
• 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.
• Early Bluegrass is my favorite kind of music, not to many people know that.
• From a social perspective, I am looking for friends, not acolytes.
• How can I be a folk? I'm from the suburbs you know.
• I also know that I am not a great technician.
• 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.