Chet Atkins Quotes

#1. Copying one person is stealing. Copying ten is research.

Chet Atkins

#2. You want a little talent on that?

Chet Atkins

#3. If you hear something you like, and you're halfway like the public, chances are they'll like it too.

Chet Atkins

#4. Elvis changed the country music scene quite a bit; he almost put country music out of business.

Chet Atkins

#5. Ray Cummins is my good friend and one of the best finger pickers around.

Chet Atkins

#6. You shape your own destiny.

Chet Atkins

#7. It took me 20 years to learn I couldn't tune too well. And by that time I was too rich to care.

Chet Atkins

#8. Everyone has their own sound, and if you're heard enough, folks will come to recognize it. Style however, is a different thing. Try to express your own ideas. It's much more difficult to do, but the rewards are there if you're good enough to pull it off ...

Chet Atkins

#9. A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can't give you a formula for that.

Chet Atkins

#10. Approach your guitar intelligently, and if there are limits, don't deny them. Work within your restrictions. Somethings you can do better than others, some things you can't do as well. So accentuate the positive.

Chet Atkins

#11. It takes a lot of devotion and work, or maybe I should say play, because if you love it, that's what it amounts to I haven't found any shortcuts, and I've been looking for a long time.

Chet Atkins

#12. Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

Chet Atkins

#13. Years from now, after I'm gone, someone will listen to what I've done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they'll hear my guitars speaking for me.

Chet Atkins

#14. Once you become predictable, no one's interested anymore.

Chet Atkins

#15. I'll always be poor in my mind.

Chet Atkins

#16. When I was a little boy, I told my dad, 'When I grow up, I want to be a musician.' My dad said: 'You can't do both, Son'.

Chet Atkins

#17. Do it again on the next verse, and people think you meant it.

Chet Atkins

#18. The last song I recorded with [Hank Williams, Sr.] was "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." I remember thinking, "Hoss, you're not just jivin'," because he was so weak that all he could do was sing a few lines and then just fall in the chair.

Chet Atkins