Mavis Staples Quotations

If you don't get out among the people, how are you going to know what they need to hear about?

My high-school a cappella teacher would embarrass me in front of the choir. 'Mavis, you're in the basement. Mavis, you're singing with the boys.' I said, 'Mr. Finch, my voice isn't soprano. I can't sing up there with the girls.' So I just got out of the choir.

My purpose: to lift your spirit and to motivate you.

I won't wear rings and jewelry on the stage because I don't want you looking at my hands. I want you hearing what I'm saying.

When I come out of my dressing room, I go to my heart and say a little prayer and go out on stage. There I am, coming to lift you up and to motivate you. I want to bring joy. It's gospel, and gospel is the truth. It's what I do. I'm going to bring you the truth and lift up your spirit.

I never sang for a Grammy, for money, for fame. That's my whole purpose for singing: for people, for the fans.

The best music of my life I heard at my grandmother's church, this little wooden church up on a hill.

Music is such a joy, just an absolute joy.

The kids today have these fresh faces. It's like they're on pins and needles, waiting to see what I'm going to do. They've never seen me. In the 1960s, those were hippies. They were wired up already. The kids today know me because I've worked with Jeff Tweedy and other young producers.

I have fun just about everywhere I go.

I sang with my father for over 50 years, and now all of a sudden he's gone, and I just dropped out.

I'm singing these songs to inspire you, to keep you going, to lift you up and give you a reason to get up in the morning

Pops, he was a singer's singer. I loved to hear my father sing. He just was so laid-back and cool. I always wished I could sing like Pops.

The devil ain't got no music. All music is God's music.

I've got to sing for Pops; I've got to keep my father's legacy alive because he started all of this. So I started calling people, and nobody would give me a chance, but I didn't let that stop me. I took money out the bank and I started making me a record, and I did it in this guy's basement.

Pops always taught us that family is the strongest unit in the world. If you stick with your family, nobody can break you, nobody can harm you. You'll always have your family.

I get my voice from my mother's side of the family. My mother and my grandmother both had strong voices.

I can't just turn over and sing disco or rock.

I don't know which way I'm going. My next CD might be country, might be Dylan, might be Mick Jagger. I don't know. I love a challenge.

I feel so good singing songs that I sang with my father.

Whenever somebody tells me they want me to stop singing, I'm gone.

I'm just singing what I feel in my heart.

There are songs that I have to play!

We've had a great change. Dr King saw to that. I was so grateful to see the 'colored only' signs come off the water fountains and bathrooms in the south. But the struggle lives on.

It's been an amazing life. It's really just been the most magical thing for me - and I have these musical friends from all walks of life.

I just had a wonderful life, and I couldn't ask for anything else.

One day, when I was about eight years old, some kids pushed me on stage at school during a talent show because they knew I could sing.

My uncle was 16, in junior high, and he heard me singing and snatched me off the stage. I thought he was happy and was going to pat me on the head and say I was good. But he took me home and told my grandmother this youngin' was at school singing the blues.

I started writing letters home to my mother, saying that I wanted to come home, grandma won't let me sing.

I would get in fights a lot. My voice was so heavy, kids would say you sound like a boy, so I would start beating them up.

I have to pinch myself sometimes. It's unbelievable, but it's not. Because I know that this would not be happening if it hadn't been for Dr. Martin Luther King.

If I wasn't my age, I would turn a flip. I would do some cartwheels. That's how I feel.

I was not fortunate enough to run into Obama. We were at the same church per se, but I would never be there when he was there.

I'm old enough to be Obama's grandmom. But I still like seeing good-looking things. Nothing wrong with that.

Well Lord, I'm still on the case. I'm still doing what Dr. King and Pops want me to do. I'm still on that freedom highway, and I'm going to walk on it until Dr. King's dream is realized.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

There is a great feeling in a small venue, with the closeness of the people and the intimacy.

We enjoyed the fact that we were called to the folk festivals and we got to know Joan Baez, Dylan. We were singing strictly gospel, but then after we started hearing songs that they would sing, we saw that those songs were very fitting for us because they were singing the truth, and truth is gospel.