Sonny Rollins

speaker

278 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 11 Sep

Sonny Rollins’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.

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Fresh Air · Remembering jazz giant Sonny Rollins · 29 May 2026 podcast

But of course, you know, being locked up is no joy ride.

Well, it took a little while, but...

You know, I slid back a couple of times and everything.

But I eventually had gotten down to the complete bottom, so I couldn't have gotten any worse.

You know, I mean, I was really in a complete... What was the bottom?

Well, the bottom was sleeping in parked cars and in garages and all that stuff, you know.

And what we used to call in those days carrying the stick.

Carrying the stick meant that you were homeless.

I guess today they would just say, guys, homeless.

But I did this mainly when I was in Chicago, right?

Chicago was where I sort of was out there on my own.

In New York, even though I was persona non grata at home, I could always perhaps get by or sneak in the house or something.

But when I was really away from home, I really had to pay a lot of dues, as we used to say.

Well, I didn't protect my horn.

I mean, I didn't have a horn, really.

I was barring other people's horns, yeah.

Well, what did I learn about myself?

Well, I learned that...

I had the strength to get over something which was really deep.

And I think one of the things that I always feel good about myself was that I was able to overcome that.

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