Art & Creativity Quote by Ronnie Hawkins

Hawkins takes the oldest promise in show business - youre one break away - and flips it into a running gag about time, aging, and the hustle that never quite pays out. The line is funny because it weaponizes the exact language of industry reassurance: "just around the corner" is meant to keep you compliant, grateful, waiting. By stretching that corner across decades, he exposes the scammy elasticity of hope in a career built on maybes.

The joke lands harder because Hawkins isnt playing the wounded artist. Hes doing what great road musicians do: turning disappointment into a bit, then riding the bit like a groove. The self-mockery is also a flex. You dont survive from 1952 onward without some stubborn pride in the grind - the clubs, the circuits, the nights when "bigtime" is a myth used to keep the band in the van. Hawkins makes that survival visible without asking for pity.

Then he swerves into the gigolo punchline, which reads like pure swagger until you catch the subtext: if the music business runs on selling yourself, why not at least get paid directly? Its a raunchy, performative way of saying the economy of attention is already transactional. For a mid-century rockabilly/RnB figure who helped seed the scene that later minted stars, its also a sideways comment on credit and reward: some people become legends, some people become the story behind them. Hawkins turns that imbalance into comedy - and keeps his dignity by staying in control of the laugh.