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Art & Creativity Quote by Tommy Chong

"I was about sixteen when I discovered that music could get you laid, so I got into music boy, didn't matter what you looked like either, you could be a geeky looking guy but if you played music, whoa, you'd get the girls"

About this Quote

Tommy Chong’s line lands because it’s both a confession and a punchline, the kind of ribald honesty that’s always been his brand. He’s not dressing adolescence up as “finding his calling”; he’s admitting the oldest, least poetic motivator in the book: sex. The candor works as a cultural corrective. We’re used to origin stories where art springs from pure passion, trauma, or genius. Chong yanks that halo off and replaces it with a teenage epiphany about status and access.

The phrasing is doing a lot. “Could get you laid” is blunt on purpose, refusing nostalgia. “So I got into music” turns creativity into strategy, like picking up a skill in a role-playing game because it boosts your charisma stats. Then he widens the appeal with “didn’t matter what you looked like,” framing music as a workaround for the tyranny of appearance. That’s the subtext: performance is a social cheat code. You don’t have to be the jock; you can be the “geeky looking guy” with a guitar and suddenly the room reorganizes around you.

There’s also a sly generosity in the boast. Chong isn’t just flexing; he’s validating every awkward kid who suspected that talent could launder insecurity into desirability. Coming from an actor synonymous with stoner comedy, it fits a broader 1960s-70s ethos where music wasn’t just art - it was a ladder, a tribe, a pickup line, a passport. It’s funny because it’s true, and uncomfortable because it’s truer than the sanitized myth we prefer.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Chong, Tommy. (2026, January 16). I was about sixteen when I discovered that music could get you laid, so I got into music boy, didn't matter what you looked like either, you could be a geeky looking guy but if you played music, whoa, you'd get the girls. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-about-sixteen-when-i-discovered-that-music-105504/

Chicago Style
Chong, Tommy. "I was about sixteen when I discovered that music could get you laid, so I got into music boy, didn't matter what you looked like either, you could be a geeky looking guy but if you played music, whoa, you'd get the girls." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-about-sixteen-when-i-discovered-that-music-105504/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I was about sixteen when I discovered that music could get you laid, so I got into music boy, didn't matter what you looked like either, you could be a geeky looking guy but if you played music, whoa, you'd get the girls." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-was-about-sixteen-when-i-discovered-that-music-105504/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Tommy Chong (born May 24, 1938) is a Actor from Canada.

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