"cool as a motherfucker"

"Bill [Graham] and I got along all right, but we had our disagreements because Bill is a tough motherfucking businessman, and I don't take no shit, either.  So there were clashes.  I remember one time -- it might have been a couple of times -- at the Fillmore East in 1970, I was opening up for this sorry-ass cat named Steve Miller.  I think Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were on that program, and they were a little better.  Anyway, Steve Miller didn't have shit going for him, so I'm pissed because I got to open for this non-playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry-ass records out.  So I would come late and he would have to go on first, and then when we got there, we just smoked the motherfucking place and everybody dug it, including Bill!

This went of for a couple of nights and every time I would come late, Bill would be telling me about 'it's being disrespectful to the artist' and shit like that.  On this last night, I do the same thing.  When I get there I see that Bill is madder than a motherfucker because he's not waiting for me inside like he normally does, but he's standing outside the Fillmore.  He starts to cut into me with this bullshit about 'disrespecting Steve' and everything.  So I just look at him, cool as a motherfucker, and say to him, 'Hey, baby, just like the other nights and you know they worked out just fine, right?'  So he couldn't say nothing to that because we had torn the place down."

-- Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography

What an amazing book.  Everything Miles says about music and racism in America is still true.  His treatment of women is insanely horrid.

I couldn't put it down though.

And there are some much better passages when it comes to art and life, but dissing Steve Miller and CSN&Y this hard is a thing of beauty.