Wealth & Money Quote by John Lee Hooker

Hard truth, spoken in the grammar of someone who’s had to earn every inch of daylight. John Lee Hooker isn’t dressing up exploitation as romance; he’s naming the deal as it actually ran for Black musicians in the mid-century blues economy: labels, club owners, and middlemen weren’t “gonna give you nothin’.” The point isn’t bitterness for its own sake. It’s a working philosophy: accept the scarcity, protect the one thing they can’t counterfeit - the music - and insist on payment that can’t be postponed, “cash on the spot.”

The clipped, conversational phrasing does double duty. It signals authenticity (Hooker’s voice, not a press release) and it functions as a moral stance. He’s not asking to be discovered; he’s negotiating. “I didn’t care as long as they let me play my music” reads at first like humble devotion, but the subtext is leverage: performance is the asset, access is the choke point, and he’ll trade a lot to keep the pipeline open.

Then the steel comes out: “You cheat me and I’m gonna get me some money, too.” It’s not a threat of violence so much as a declaration of symmetry. If the system is built on taking, he’s refusing to be the only one bound by politeness. In a business that routinely paid Black artists in promises, Hooker frames survival as ethics: get paid, stay mobile, keep playing, don’t confuse gratitude with consent.