Creativity Quote by Bernie Worrell

It sounds like a shrug, but it lands like a thesis statement for funk: agency as groove. Bernie Worrell’s “Usually, I just do what I want, because I got it that way” is casual on the surface, almost tossed off mid-laugh. Underneath, it’s a quiet flex from someone who helped invent the soundscape where rules melt and individuality becomes the point.

The key move is in the logic: not “I do what I want because I’m entitled,” but “because I got it that way.” That phrasing smuggles in labor, skill, and self-making. Worrell isn’t claiming freedom as a birthright; he’s claiming it as a result. In the world he came up in - Black musicians navigating industry gatekeeping, band hierarchies, and the constant pressure to be “useful” rather than idiosyncratic - the ability to follow your own taste is rarely granted. It’s earned, negotiated, and sometimes stolen back.

Context matters: Worrell’s legacy with Parliament-Funkadelic and beyond is basically a case study in turning eccentricity into structure. His keyboard lines are playful but disciplined; the weirdness is engineered. So the line reads as a personal ethic: build your chops, build your sound, then protect your right to be led by desire.

It also carries a sly anti-myth: creativity isn’t divine inspiration; it’s leverage. Once you’ve “got it that way,” you can stop asking for permission and start sounding like yourself.