I always kept busy. If the music business got bad I'd get me a job doin' somethin' else. Bellhop. Porter. Anything to make an honest living.
— Scatman Crothers
Now that I'm older, I couldn't do music full-time. You don't get home until two or three a.m. Acting, you can be at home with your family.
I was busy enough when I was just a musician. I wasn't making all that much money but I was busy.
The first paid gig? It was back home in Terre Haute, Indiana, back in 1925, '26, when I was going to high school and working in a speakeasy.
You know, I'd forget words and start just singing noises.
We are all stars in this galaxy. All of us. No one's greater than the other.
Terre Haute. They used to call it 'Terrible Hut' because it was so wide open. Gambling, red light district, speak-easies. I entertained for all the gangsters. Can't name a gangster that didn't come into the place where I worked.
You ain't no more than me, and I ain't no more than you. We're all God's children.
My acting has got to be natural. I didn't go to any drama schools. It's a gift from God.
I get a kick out of just working, making people happy - whether it be in the movies or just playing my guitar.
Color don't mean nothin'. 'Cause we're all God's children.
The Bible is the book I read. It's got answers for everything.
I don't get excited or riled easily.
I've had a group ever since '36, off and on.
Spiritually, I'm Jewish.
The Shining is my fourth picture with Jack Nicholson, or as he says, our fourth 'classic.'
It's a tough business, yes it is. But I've been fortunate. The only real hard times I had was when I was with Montague's Kentucky Serenades. We really had it tough then.
I admit, music is my first love. I enjoy acting but I couldn't give up my music.
I went to the driving range and hit a couple of good shots and I was hooked. Now I have six putters, including one engraved with my name.
I'm 70 years old. I'm a young man, and I've still got a lot to learn, that's right, and I'm learning every day.
Can you imagine what five or 10 dollars was like in 1925? In those days, you could get room and board for $1.50 a week. Room and board!
I got simple tastes. Don't go in for all that flashy business.
You can be dressed the best and have a wicked heart.
I love people. You've gotta keep that love in your heart for your fellow man.
Oh, sure, I love boxing.
As a kid, I used to take the sheet off of my mother's bed, make a tent and put on a show for the neighborhood kids and charge them two packs of matches. Then, the show got so good I started charging a penny.
I was brought up in church, but when I confessed my errors, they put me out.
I worked on a weekly one-hour show live from Los Angeles called 'The Dixie Boat Show.' We only had one camera, so there was a lot of panning because it was always on, and anything that went wrong, from actors fluffing their lines to sets falling down in mid-scene, you let it go by.
I'm always relaxed.
I came out with my five-piece group and opened at Billy Burke's Swing Oar. This was when Hollywood was really jumpin'. This was when Frankie Laine used to come in and ask if he could sing a number.
I really don't enjoy watching myself perform. That's why I usually don't go to see my movies.
Jack Nicholson and I have been friends ever since we met while doing 'The King of Marvin Gardens.'
I think it's so foolish for people to try and hide their age. I don't understand that. You should be happy and glad to be living.
Even after I got started in TV and the movies, I didn't sit around waiting on parts. I kept busy.
I'm a connoisseur of sausage.
I learned when I was a kid not to worry so much about things because it's all going to work out. What will be will be.
Guy asked me, 'Scat, what is there left for you to do?' And I said, 'A Broadway play, man!' Can you dig it? That's the only thing I never done. I'd like to say I had.
Color don't mean anything. People gonna try to put you in a place one way or the other.
You know, it's nice being an overnight success after 50 years.
A lot of people in Hollywood are on that ego trip. They think they're more than somebody else. I've told a lot of stars in my career, 'Hey, man you're looking down on the people who made you. lf you keep doing that, you're gonna fall back down.'
Age ain't nothing but a figure. Let's go out there and play some kick the can. It's all in the mind; let's become kids. That's been my philosophy of life anyhow, man.
I've been an actor all of my life, but not professionally.
I was about to be a preacher, but I was a sinner.
I was the first black man on television.
Call me the Scatman. I do quite a bit of scattin'.
We played, jazz, blues, dixie, and it all came from the church. When I went to church, I would see the sisters and brothers doing the same beat.
To be honest , I looked at 'The Shining' as just doing another movie.
