Only the Strong Survive (2002)

Sam Moore: Self

Photos 

Quotes 

• Roger Friedman : I have to tell you, nobody wears sunglasses like you. You are the best sunglass wearer.

  Isaac Hayes : Let me tell you a secret behind this. This glasses was a security blanket. There was a moment I was so shy, I was scared when I first did Dick Clark.

  Sam Moore : That's right!

  Isaac Hayes : I was scared to death! I put these shades on - it was like an ostrich with his head in a hole. I thought I was safe behind those shades.

• Joyce Moore : There it is that New York skyline. Pan to the New York skyline.

  Sam Moore : I used to stay right around the corner there, Rog.

  Roger Friedman : Yeah? Where?

  Sam Moore : Right at that hotel there.

  Roger Friedman : What hotel is that?

  Sam Moore : It belonged to the Japanese, so it had a funny name to it. But, you only paid, eh, eight dollars a night, at that time.

  Roger Friedman : Eight dollars a night? Is that when you were performing when you were in town or just when you were staying here?

  Sam Moore : No, no, I was staying there. Yeah, that's it.

  Joyce Moore : This was during the drug days.

  Roger Friedman : During the drug days?

  Sam Moore : Yeah. Right there. I got put out from across the street. Then, I went across and came over here and I stayed there for two or three days and then, eh, I got put out and, eh, I started working these streets here.

  Roger Friedman : Working them?

  Sam Moore : Yes. I was selling drugs all the way down here.

  Roger Friedman : What year was this?

  Sam Moore : Seventy-two? Seventy-three! Seventy-three, yes.

  Roger Friedman : Did people know who you were when you were doing that?

  Sam Moore : Oh, sure. They eventually found out. You know, you don't try to, you don't try and hide after...

  Joyce Moore : That's when you grew the beard isn't it?

  Sam Moore : Yeah and with the glasses and all that stuff.

  Joyce Moore : What kind of drugs did you sell?

  Sam Moore : The same as I was using, using. Heroin and cocaine. Yeah, but, I started with a full-blown heroin, at first. To cut it and mix it up and everything. This was my, yeah, this was my domain, at that time.

• Sam Moore : I be clean now.

  Joyce Moore : Since April of '82.

  Sam Moore : Of '82. Yeah.

  Roger Friedman : Hallelujah. How did you, eh, how did you finally clean up?

  Sam Moore : Ask her.

  Joyce Moore : Tricked him.

  Roger Friedman : You tricked him?

  Joyce Moore : I tricked him. I fought the devil. I realized, well, I got in a position to be in total control, literally, of his money, his drugs, his proximity, his everything. And then I had to play hardball and tough love and do all that stuff. Because I knew that it wasn't him, the person, that I was controlling, it was the demon that was controlling him and I had to, in essence, beat it.

• Roger Friedman : So, Sam, how have you survived?

  Sam Moore : I'm one of the most luckiest - and I'm the most blessed - person that you're ever going to find. One among.

  Joyce Moore : You know what his nickname is? Ask Issac. Issac calls him Bless.

  Sam Moore : Yeah.

  Joyce Moore : Blessed.

• Isaac Hayes : Break a leg!

  Sam Moore : I'm trying!

• Sam Moore : Soul music is a feeling! And you put a little extra emphasis on what you're singing. That's soul.

• Sam Moore : [singing]  I'm a...

  Backup Singers : Soul Man! Soul Man!

  Sam Moore : Grab a rope and I'll pull you in, But give you hope, And then be your only boyfriend, Yes! Yes! - - - I gotta leave you. I don't wanna go, but, I got to go. I can't stop singin'! I got to sing it one more time! Yes! Let me hear you say: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

• Sam Moore : We opened for snakes. We opened for chickens. We opened for midgets. Yeah, we opened for a midget. We opened for wanna be Elvis'. I mean I couldn't believe and, eh, to go back, and then, we opened a show one time and we had a midget a transvestite.