Motherhood Quote by Judy Collins

"I always sang when I was little and my father, who was a great influence on me, also had a wonderful voice. He and my mother really encouraged me to sing and play the piano. They were always very supportive"

Judy Collins, Musician

About this Quote

There is a quiet kind of mythology in the way Judy Collins frames talent here: not as a lightning bolt, but as a household habit. The line starts in the everyday ("I always sang when I was little") and quickly locates the origin story where so many artists both want and fear to look - at family. By naming her father as "a great influence" and then underlining that he "also had a wonderful voice", Collins isn’t just crediting encouragement; she’s establishing lineage. The gift wasn’t discovered, it was inherited, modeled, normalized.

The subtext is unusually gentle for a business that often rewards the trauma narrative. Collins leans into a story of support rather than struggle, and that choice matters. In an era when female musicians were routinely treated as novelties, muses, or products, she’s asserting something sturdier: I was built for this, and the people closest to me treated music like a serious craft. The mention of piano isn’t decorative; it signals discipline, training, and fluency - the kind of musical literacy that helps an artist control her own sound in rooms where others might try to define it for her.

Contextually, this reads like Collins positioning herself within the folk tradition’s favorite posture: authenticity as biography. But instead of romanticizing bohemian chaos, she offers a portrait of steady scaffolding. The intent isn’t nostalgia; it’s credibility. Support becomes the hidden engine of "natural" talent, and Collins is naming it plainly, almost politically, as if to say: artists don’t just happen. They’re raised.

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About the Author

Judy Collins (born May 1, 1939) is a Musician from USA.

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