Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I used to run the band hockey pool - regular season and playoffs. I would write weekly reports, which were meant to demoralize and diffuse enjoyment for others.
I work a couple of hours a day with a guitar or pushing words around, so over time I have a lot of material, so I don't get into this feast-or-famine situation.
I'm not a rock star writing poetry. I don't feel like a rock star and I don't know what one is, actually. I'm a goalie/poet or a hotel guest/poet or a father/poet.
Rock 'n' roll is not unlike love. You find it oddly strangely comforting that no matter how old you get, when it comes to matters of the heart, you're always 15 inside.
If you want to know what being Canadian is, it's being part of the human race, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, which has been scared off, warded away, girded against.
We were interested in making a long career out of this, rather than being 'Canada's Newest Hitmakers.' It seems to work, and it trickles down to every aspect of the band.
I want my kids to be good. I want them to be safe and have a great, long life. And take what they need from me and leave what they don't. Definitely leave what they don't.
I was a rink rat growing up. I was a goalie and my father was a busy father of five, so he would come when he could. When he did show up, I'd look up and there he would be.
You know, I've been hit with a Greb boot in the face and I've been spat on. And my kids light up when they hear these stories. It really takes their minds off their troubles.
If we weren't in this band, some of us wouldn't be playing at all. You have tiffs with someone when he has smelly feet in the touring van, but we all respect each other as friends first.
I think the recording industry is founded on that principle: to approximate the live experience, to approximate that thing that evaporates as it's happening, disappears as it's happening.
Even 'The Inevitability of Death' is kind of a funny song more than anything. I mean, I thought it would be funny imagining radio deejays cueing it up and announcing it as people are driving off to work.
We're not building a nuclear reactor here. We're not drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean with no plan in case something goes wrong. This is making music, this is melodious air and people can hear what goes into it.
Acting is like lifting a 400-pound feather. It's a feather, how hard could it be? And yet, you go to lift it and it's heavy. For that reason, I love it, because it's very hard and difficult and challenging and obviously I want to learn more.
I haven't written too many political lyrics. Nor have I written any pro-Canada lyrics, any kind of jingoistic, nationalistic cant... That stuff doesn't interest me and I don't even know if I could write that if I tried because I don't really feel it.
I had spend a lot of time looking at things intellectually, coming from the head, let's say, rather than the heart, and saying things that way. Turns of phrases became paramount to any kind of feeling behind them, which is not to say they were all devoid of that.
As we move towards resolution and understanding and greater serenity in all aspects of our life, love's pretty elemental and that's nice to know. I think rock 'n' roll is the same. I don't pretend to understand it; it feels confusing and frightening and wonderful.
As you get older, you mellow, but there's a natural propensity to watch what you say, 'cause you learn that you want more time and space to craft what you want to say because you're less likely to want to say impetuous things, or things that aren't thought-out properly.
The only criterion we used in doing cover material was we wanted to do songs that we wished bands would play when we went out. We were doing Yardbirds and Rolling Stones cover songs-which is not any big deal, but where we were from, all we were getting were Top 40 bands.
I stand in support of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations and all Canadians who find themselves with no voice in our present version of democracy, who are trying to come up with the entry fee that gets them a seat at the table where their pollution future is being discussed.
We were big Clash fans, you know, big Who fans and I think we would listen to this music and talk about music and do nothing but music night and day, and when it came time to actually making our own music, you feel compelled to sort of tuck all those influences away, not show them.
I like hanging with my family and helping them on their way however I can. There's a new tragicomedy every half-hour, there is laughter, there are tears, and it's all real. They are endlessly entertaining, they have given me so much, they've given me a chance to 'see' things again.
Bob Rock taught me a lot. His friendship has taught me a lot about what you should expect from a recording session and, more importantly, how you shouldn't expect anything less than absolute joyousness. You should feel great. You should feel 14 to be doing it. It's true and it's rare.
You sort of get so lulled into thinking of yourself as this five-headed thing, the group, the band, The Hip. I guess you just forget it's a family, and like every good family, you can forget. But you're also committed to each other, so there's always room to grow, to learn and relearn.
Once we went into the basement and learned a song, we felt successful. Then we learned two songs, and then we got a gig, and on and on - and that's the way musicians think. I don't know about other people - I mean, I don't know about all musicians either - but some are more driven than others.
I'm a music fan - I love meeting other musicians, I love talking to other musicians - and what greater opportunity to take advantage of whatever standing we might have to try and attract people? To say 'We don't know you, but we love you, and will you come play with us?' Sometimes they actually do.
If I'm to be an 'ist' then, like Bobby Kennedy, I'm probably more of a free market capitalist than an environmentalist. Rather than wanting to tell people to be less bad, I'm saying let's make it fair across the board and stop subsidizing the big heavy-polluting fat cats, let's make it a level playing field.
I grew up on the lake and spent most of that time outdoors. As a musician, I travel widely around the country and talk to a lot of people, from all walks of life. That experience, combined with my rock and roll roots gives me something of an affinity for the underdog. In many ways, the environment is also the underdog - so, it's an easy fit.