Wealth & Money Quote by Ronnie Hawkins

Ninety percent on wine, women, and song is Hawkins turning the rock-and-roll origin story into a punchline: the life is the work, and the work is the excuse. The line borrows the old showbiz boast (often pinned on W.C. Fields) and plays it like a barroom riff - familiar chords, perfect timing. Its charm comes from the sleight of hand: he pretends to confess irresponsibility, then flips the moral ledger so the only "waste" is whatever didn’t go toward pleasure and performance.

The intent isn’t just to sound decadent; it’s to sound free. Hawkins, a foundational figure in the North American touring circuit and a mentor-or-magnet for talent, understands that audiences don’t merely buy songs - they buy a myth of appetite. This quip keeps that myth intact while insulating him from sentimentality. If you laugh, you’ve joined the club; if you judge, you’ve missed the point and, implicitly, the music.

Subtext: celebrity excess is both real and theatrical. Hawkins doesn’t deny the stereotype; he weaponizes it. In a culture that loves to punish artists for living loudly, he pre-emptively owns the indictment and turns it into brand management, a self-aware shrug that says: yes, I took the deal, and I’d do it again.

Context matters, too: an era when musicians were expected to be larger than life, when touring was grinding and the pleasures were part anesthesia, part folklore. The joke lands because it’s half confession, half sales pitch - and entirely stagecraft.