Ruben Blades Quotes:
I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance.
Ruben Blades
So that in 1974, when I graduated as a lawyer, I figured I’m not going to be a lawyer under a military regime.
RUBEN BLADES
I was born in Panama, the Republic of Panama, on July 16, 1948 in Panama City, in an area called San Felipe.
RUBEN BLADES
Anywhere you had a commerce center, you had a lot of music.
RUBEN BLADES
What is interesting in this is the exchange of music that occurred between New Orleans and Cuba, I mean, they had ferries that would go from one port to another.
RUBEN BLADES
There was no television, so the radio provided you with everything.
RUBEN BLADES
And music was a very important part of our lives. The radio was on all day.
RUBEN BLADES
Rock is young music, it is youth oriented. It just speaks for a generation.
RUBEN BLADES
But, when I was about thirteen, I began to sort of sing in my neighborhood.
RUBEN BLADES
It’s almost as if people think that in Latin America we’re not hip to what’s happening here.
RUBEN BLADES
We had something to say. Whenever we played, people didn’t dance, they listened.
RUBEN BLADES
I think in New York we had respect and we would pretty much fill up the places where we went, but I never got the sense that we really were Number 1 here in New York among the Latin crowds.
RUBEN BLADES
People are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for being.
RUBEN BLADES
I didn’t do drugs, I never did do drugs. Never. I don’t have any story of drugs, you know, to speak of. Never did drugs, never was interested in drugs and then I wasn’t interested in the people around the drugs.
RUBEN BLADES
A lot of times you’re just conditioned by what’s around you.
RUBEN BLADES
You know, it was uncomfortable doing the same thing. I don’t like a rut.
RUBEN BLADES
It was very interesting, and we went to Germany and we toured Germany like we were a German band in 1985.
RUBEN BLADES
Everyone has a black guy inside them. Mine is a Cuban sonero who is 80-something years old and sings better than I do. His name is Medoro Madera. Medoro has been recording since 1997.
RUBEN BLADES
I collected the ‘Walking Dead’ comics.
RUBEN BLADES
I’m planning to retire from salsa. I’m planning to do a farewell tour.
RUBEN BLADES
I really think that music itself, being one of the greatest possible vehicles for mass communication, should be probed to its extremes, to see how effective it can actually become, which is one of the reasons why I became also interested in presenting political points of view.
RUBEN BLADES
I think being born in Panama was a blessing because Panama is a port city. It’s a really – the mentality is that – I remember that of admitting things in. You know, ports, ideas come in and out all the time.
RUBEN BLADES