Be honest, be nice, be a flower not a weed.
Aaron Neville
Every morning I wake up and thank God.
Aaron Neville
It’s up to God to do the judging. You haven’t walked in my boots, so how are you going to judge me?
Aaron Neville
It’s one of the greatest festivals in the world. New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest is the best all-around… It’s an honor to be closing it.
Aaron Neville
You’ve just got to sing, do some kind of singing every day. Early mornings and cold weather can mess with that. I drink special teas with cayenne pepper, but I think you’re psyching yourself out, really.
Aaron Neville
God is waiting for us, to forgive us all, and what is broken, he’ll fix.
Aaron Neville
My favorite prayer is Footprints in the Sand. You know that prayer? I know the times that he carried me, you know? I kind of wore him out.
Aaron Neville
Yellow Moon’ was a poem. My wife at the time, Joel – she’s dead now – it was our 25th anniversary. She had the chance to go on a cruise with her sister. And I’m home with the kids and looking up, and I saw the big moon, and I just started writing.
Aaron Neville
If we were poor, we didn’t know it ’cause I guess you don’t miss what you never had. So, you know, we made do with whatever. We used to make our own toys, and we used to play with spinning tops and marbles. A pocket full of marbles, and you were rich – you didn’t worry about no money.
Aaron Neville
Every day, some act of kindness comes my way, even if it’s just someone opening the door. It happens every day if you keep an eye out for it. Keeping an eye out, that’s the key.
Aaron Neville
Ain’t no place like New Orleans. It’s one of kind.
Aaron Neville
The gospel music and doo-wop is what has informed me personally.
Aaron Neville
In New Orleans, music is part of the culture. You’re raised with it, from the cradle to the grave, and all in-between.
Aaron Neville
I was very surprised when I heard that I had been chosen to receive the James Cardinal Gibbons Award.
Aaron Neville
I think things happened the way they did for a reason.
Aaron Neville
My friends and I were wild and we liked to joy-ride.
Aaron Neville
Until I went to rehab, I didn’t understand what it did.
Aaron Neville
I buried Joel on our 48th anniversary. I had been with her since I was 16.
Aaron Neville
I always feel I’m blessed, you know. I thank God for letting me use his voice. That’s how I see it.
Aaron Neville
I am very honored and excited to have ‘Devotion’ released as the first DVD Audio disc… surround sound is amazing… The music comes alive and is so vibrant – it’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard before!
Aaron Neville
When I’m singing, it’s a mixture of my innocence in the projects, my mom and dad. It’s all the good and the bad, the laughs and the frowns that I went through and seen other people go through. Then you be trying to write it. Whatever’s coming out, you try and make it all cool.
Aaron Neville
I even done a doo-wop version of the Mickey Mouse march.
Aaron Neville
My drummer, bass player, and guitar player sing backgrounds. They play and sing. I can sing all the harmonies, but I can’t do it alone.
Aaron Neville
When I was living in the projects, I had a mop stick for my horse. I wanted to be Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, so I would ride my mop through the projects.
Aaron Neville
I know that God is good, and he saved me from hell and damnation.
Aaron Neville
You try to do what you can to bring harmony wherever you go.
Aaron Neville
You never know how much time you got.
Aaron Neville
Growing up my mother played Sarah Vaughan and Nat Cole in the house regularly.
Aaron Neville
I always loved Sam Cooke, because he seemed very versatile. He sang gospel, soul, blues, pop music.
Aaron Neville
When you were a kid, a day was a long time and a year was a long time.
Aaron Neville
If you had told me I’d be making 62 tomorrow, I’d say you were lying.
Aaron Neville
I feel it was just a few years ago I was running around in short pants.
Aaron Neville
I was raised Catholic, but my father’s people were Methodist, so we went to both churches.
Aaron Neville
So now I have a collection of poetry by Aaron Neville and I give it to people I want to share it with. I’d like to publish it someday.
Aaron Neville
I sing around the house, in the shower.
Aaron Neville
I just sing. You have to use it.
Aaron Neville
We lived together as kids, and now we’re taking care of each other as men.
Aaron Neville
It’s a 360-degree sound experience. Like you’re in the middle of the band. A lot of people have the technology to play the format, so why not put it out there. It sounds great.
Aaron Neville
When I record something, I’ll take a drive and just listen.
Aaron Neville
I really like listening to music in my car.
Aaron Neville
The extras are a nice bonus feature, but the main incentive is the musical experience.
Aaron Neville
Me and my partners had been stealing cars for a while.
Aaron Neville
But I knew if I ran I’d never be able to sing, so I had to take my punishment.
Aaron Neville
So I went in front of the judge, and I had my St. Jude prayer book in my pocket and my St. Jude medal. And I’m standing there and that judge said I was found guilty, so he sentenced me to what the law prescribed: one to 14 years.
Aaron Neville
I always tell people I want to see the world through His eyes, and I want people to see Him in me.
Aaron Neville
I owe it all to Jesus.
Aaron Neville
We used to play football on the levee, with no shirts on in the summer – August in New Orleans – and my skin would turn red. They’d call me Redskin, Red Apache, then it turned around to Apache Red.
Aaron Neville
Through the years, I found we had Native American blood in us. My great-grandmother came from the island of Martinique, and they hooked up with the Native Americans of Louisiana.
Aaron Neville
I might see something on TV and get inspired to write about it. I can’t sit down and plan to write. It has to come to me in my head like someone telling me the words.
Aaron Neville
The first time I recorded without Allen Toussaint, I wanted to do doo-wop. Everything I’ve done since then has got some kind of doo-wop essence in it.
Aaron Neville
Doo-wop is the true music to me, man. Doo-wop was what nurtured me and grew me into who I am, and I guess even when I was in school, the teacher probably thought I had ADD or something every day, because I’d be beating on the desks, singing like the Flamingos or the Spaniels or Clyde McPhatter or somebody.
Aaron Neville
When I’m singing, I connect the dots with notes.
Aaron Neville