Some are skeptical. My mom thought the guitar was going to fizzle out in two weeks, that it was just a fad-and that was in 1958.

You want to have butterflies in your stomach, because if you don't, if you walk out onstage complacent, that's not a good thing.

I think anyone who lays a long trail of creative work over the years can't help but look back and wonder, 'What was I thinking?'

If you listen to a lot of music, it gradually seeps into your consciousness or your unconsciousness and comes out in your music.

Frankly speaking, if I care what people write, whether it is positive or negative, I believe, personally, I'm on the wrong path.

The world has accelerated to the point that, as far as the album as a form, I don't know if it's going to last that much longer.

With Hall & Oates, honestly, after years and years of playing the same material, it's easy to coast. I can coast through a show.

Just because something is melodic or catchy doesn't mean that it doesn't have depth and substance and progressive sensibilities.

Europe was a horrible place. There was nothing on TV. The food was terrible. And they don't even have ice. Who doesn't have ice?

I take smack because I enjoy it. I enjoy all it makes me feel. I don't do it to be in with the in crowd. I can rock out with it.

I think that Bach has a very nice sound on the lute. But I find that what I want to do with Bach is best revealed on the guitar.

The same sensations that you get in heavy metal are in horror movies. Heavy metal sounds evil and horror movies are evil, ha ha!

Smokin' at the Half Note is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was very intense. Maybe that's what caught everybody's attention. As a player, he didn't do anything amazing.

I go through about two Fender mediums a night because I don't pick straight down; it's sort of sideways, and it shaves them off.

I've played hundreds of protests. I've marched on dozens of picket lines. I've strummed my guitar at innumerable demonstrations.

I think the way I play the guitar is very percussive. I play a lot of rhythm chops as though I were playing congas or something.

I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

I wish I had a nickel for every song that I've left in the bathroom, written down on a matchbox, or just totally forgotten about

When I was about 3, my grandfather used to give me and my sister a nickel to sit out on the front porch with him and sing songs.

You wait all your life to be signed by a major label, and then when they sign you, they don't want you to do what you want to do.

As the chord changes go by, I don't so much think about a static chord voicing changing. I just see the notes on the neck change.

Male female slave or free; peaceful or disorderly; maybe you and he will not agree; but you need him to show you new ways to see.

'Each One Lost' I wrote the day after I got home. My week in Afghanistan was a very short trip, but it was a powerful experience.

I think that's the way to go - dive into the music and don't think, stay frozen, why don't we all stay frozen in time for awhile?

So often these days eating Indian food passes for spirituality. I don't meditate, I don't pray, but I eat two samosa's every day.

I'm thrilled I have the opportunity to do the Spread show and have the terrific sponsors that we work with like Nikon or Verizon.

Guitar Player Magazine says Dick Dale is the father of Heavy Metal, blowing up 48 amplifiers, creating the first power amplifier.

Try to feel and give only love and compassion to every one; you will be happy. Don't judge or hate anything. You will be unhappy.

The Runaways' audience was 90 percent male. That was kind of depressing...Why don't women-our own gender-come out and support us?

In my opinion, there is one singular problem with religions in general: they are exclusive. To me, this exclusivity is not right.

The first record I bought myself could have been 'Oh Lonesome Me' by Don Gibson or 'Wake Up Little Susie' by the Everly Brothers.

Songs like "Spirit Carries On" really gets the audience moved and on the same page. It's challenging and all so much fun to play.

I figure people drift toward liberalism at a young age, and I always hope that they change when they see how the world really is.

The other thing that has made playing live for me more enjoyable is the audience. I never knew I had such heartfelt, loving fans.

If you plan on continuing a tradition, it might be a good idea to find out just what tradition it is that you intend to continue.

The early Bon Jovi stuff I can't stand. I just think we didn't have our stylistic voice. But some people love some of that stuff.

Some of our favorite bands are, like, Third Eye Blind and Counting Crows, and stuff like Danny Elfman and Jon Brion movie scores.

It's like Christians who want to be like Jesus. We're just trying to follow in someone's footsteps. Might as well be The Beatles.

My band did the Teenage Fair battle of the bands - problem was we were 11 years old! They gave us a prize for youngest band ever.

The digital world is so convenient and nice, but just playing back a vinyl record is a much warmer, hotter, more present feeling.

I kind of enjoyed having people complain that I wasn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than I think I'll like being in it.

My parents met in Kenya. My father is African, is Kenyan. The Kenyan side of my family was involved in the anticolonial movement.

I wish I had a nickel for every song that I've left in the bathroom, written down on a matchbox, or just totally forgotten about.

If there is any justice in the world, then eighties rock will never again serve to blight humanity as it did in that dark decade!

For me, the only thing that makes one scale different from another is not the starting note; it's the separation of the intervals.

Some people say we have thirteen albums that all sound the same. That isn't true. We have fourteen albums that all sound the same.

To write a song and have it embraced by someone, even one person, I don't think that's something that everyone gets to experience.

I woke up one morning with this song in my head, and the opening line of the song: My name was Richard Nixon, only now I'm a girl.

For me, noise is not something I use to shock, or because it's funny, or weird, or whatever. I use it because I find it beautiful.

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