American Musician Quotations | Page 6

The music scene is more competitive in the States.

We want to be a place where, and when there's no place else, you can turn us on and know that He's there, He cares, and He's going to do something about it.

Sometimes I like them artificial and sometimes I like them real. And the reason is because sometimes I like a real close sound. And I like a very specific snare sound and I can't get that in the big room.

Chris is the engineer down at the studio where we do these things. And he's just such an integral part and he has such a marvelous ear. Also it turns out, we didn't know, but he's a pretty good fiddle player.

Well, I don't have anything to say to Mr. Sneddon, you know? Nothing at all.

That's the only way to do it. Just like an actor. You can get a great performance if you do a bunch of takes and edit it. You find the moments and string them together.

I just want to thank all my fans for their loyalty and support-for coming out to the shows and buying the CDs.

Some tracks are with quartet and some tracks are with synthesizer.

There'll be no oiling up with this band. The oil has been there for years and it only gets better.

When Garcia died, and I decided not to play, I came out here.

Yes it was we, are a few years back parted from our record company and took the album that we were making with them and released it independently in the United States had a number one Independent debut in the United States.

But then again in the East Coast, I think, Tupac, inspired everybody on the East Coast, everybody down south, everybody in the West Coast you know what sayin'.

I'm ready to work and if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it's fine.

You just never know when somebody's gonna die. It could happen at any moment so you've got to really treat everybody that way. Just really let everybody know how you feel about them.

Do you not see, first, that - as a mental abstract - physical force is directly opposed to morality; and secondly, that it practically drives out of existence the moral forces?

We're really good friends and we hang out. It's like I get to hang out with my friends and get paid for it.

We go in there and we work on altering those ideas and in many cases go in different directions.

I used the dictionary very minimally and I just wrote how I speak. And I speak very hateful manner usually. I constantly did that because I think the fans would get more out of it if they understood exactly what I'm saying - exactly where I'm coming from.

I mean, look how many musicians have come through and played beside me, and I'm workin' and they're not.

Working with Benny was important for me and for black musicians in general.

I feel more confident about what we're doing as a band and what we're trying to do as a band and the way we're looking at it as a band.

That was my choice at that time, and I still say Nixon was a great president. A very beautiful and wise man.

I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.

Sinatra, here's a guy who plays a tough guy in all his movies, but was allowed to be vulnerable when he stepped up to the microphone.

It was like an honor thing for me to meet 50 cause I respected his whole story.

The movie wasn't a hit, although it did well in Europe for some reason.

We learned pretty early on in this band that you can't have snobbery in music.

I have about nine guitars in all, so obviously I'm into collecting.

I think they will feel refreshed because I cater to a mature audience.

Every single note on this album is there for a reason.

It taught me something. It taught you your craft.

Our act started at the bottom and went downhill.

It's certainly not just a spot opinion; it's something that obviously has been building up for years. It is also very good for publicity, and it is the kind of recognition that maybe will help financially, also.

Darrell is really good in the studio. I mean, he has a real working knowledge of how the process works, and what sounds good coming back over tape, and how the stuff works together.

I enjoyed listening to it, but I didn't think I could do it.

I'm glad that he's got all this behind him. And I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of people - and there are certain people that don't report the news accurate for their own personal fame and gain. And they know who they are.

The booking agent had the audacity to take 10 percent, so we wound up with about $100 a week apiece.

I really had little interest in becoming famous. When I write my book, it will be my guide to avoid becoming a rock star.

If there were something that I was going to endorse, it would probably be something like sneakers.

I enjoyed making this album a lot because of the knowledge we acquired over the last 3 years.

It doesn't have anything to do with yesterday or tomorrow, it's all right now.

I venture to prophesy that there lies before us a bitter and an evil time.

The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dare to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.

I learned my phrasing from Frank. I loved him so much.

We wanted to slow down. But one would let us.

You grow up however, unfortunately, as the college years fly by, into a very exaggerated sense of your own capacities.

Do not let any record company disturb your creative flow. You are not writing for the record company. You're writing for the public.

Johnny was great in the studio; he was there to make the music that he wanted to make. We lived right beside each other and had a rehearsal studio that was just ours, with nobody else using it, it was part of Johnny's house, so we could rehearse every day.

As a songwriter, there's nothing better than winning Song Of The Year. But I couldn't really celebrate, because it wasn't right. Luther wasn't standing next to me, to receive the award.

I practice every day. I've been doing it since I was eight.

With me being form the South, I wanted to make this album like a G Unit.

We used to get one room and we'd park the vehicle outside, everybody would all take showers and we'd steal towels because we knew we wasn't gonna have enough towels for all five of us to shower.

I think for writers who write that kind of stuff, they want to make changes. Look at Kris Kristofferson and Dylan. I mean, whole generations come along liking that stuff and that's great.

Because God only knows why people like what they like and don't like something else.

I'm happy with the way everyone presents themselves onstage.

It draws you in and creates pictures, so what I do is almost like a talking story book.

We still play Foreigner songs. I play the songs that I was involved in writing.

To me, you go through things like that and you learn from it. You add it on to your life, to try to make your life better. Instead of dogging people, learn something from it. And keep stepping.

I don't have to take insulin because I have been able to make these changes and take this medication.

I'll look back and I'd be better to answer that in about three months from now. Or when the movie comes out and I see it. I don't even know what it is yet. I've still been in the middle of it.

I've always said money may buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail.

I show up ready to play, so I normally try and fit the situation.

First I lost my voice, then I lost my figure and then I lost Onassis.

I called it Rockabilly 'cause I was rocking the strums, which you're not supposed to do.

To me, Garth, he's kind of like my guardian angel. It's like every time I need some help, he's there.

My father assigned me to keep his scrapbooks. At first I was interested in reading only his rave notices, but I got interested in reading what the critics were saying about whether the play was good or not.

I'm at that point again where it don't matter where he is to me anymore.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

We spent a lot of time on that record with the sound and recorded it on the Paramount sound stage which is this huge room where the sound is reflected but the reflection is so late and comes from so far away that it doesn't blur the music but gives you a room nonetheless.

Now we have an audience that is so very eclectic. Big, tremendous fans.

We've always had a love for other places outside the US. I would be right with him. Now that Michael's been vindicated, we all have to be careful... you never know what someone's plotting and planning.

A lot of bands were doing remotes from ballrooms around the country.

But I had two very special people who helped to take my style to the next level. Thank God for my first MC Cowboy and my first student Grand Wizard Theodore, and to go out after creating this art form and finding everyone jamming to it - that too was pretty scary.

I didn't need to depend on the record company to publish my records.

If you don't operate it as a business, you aren't going to be around very long.

I like that sense of we're all on the same page and trying to get the job done.

If you make it sound too much like a synth, it will just sound like a guitar part played on a synth.

Five years ago we were working on a new album when my health began failing.

When we got with George, he didn't care what was happening. He liked how crazy we were looking and dressing. I kinda liked being with George more so at the time, because George let us do what we wanted to do. But I needed both lessons.

As a matter of fact they'd blacken us down. I guess there's a reason that according to what the Caucasian wanted us to look like. He wanted us to look-if we were Black, then he had his idea of what we look like.

Well, you might as well imitate your own program because if you don't, someone else will.

I'm trying to forget how much that cost, but I just had to have them.

Even in the beginning, when we knew there was a legal argument about how much our song sounds like his song, as one songwriter to another, I wasn't sure that Cat Stevens would take that as bad.

We are very fortunate to live in this country, but at the same time, the reason the forces are so much more destructive here is because they are faceless.

We do this basically for ourselves. People appreciate it, which is cool, but I think they appreciate that we're doing it for ourselves. We're doing it our way, and how people like it is not up to us. We like it.

I've just built a studio in my mama's old bedroom, which I thought was fitting; she died last year. We've recorded nine songs recorded in there already; we're sort of just chipping away.

I don't see this planet being... they're talking about how they're turning around the environmental problems here, but I think it's already too late.

We're really in control; that's the difference. We were out of control then.

I'm gonna walk a little bit of dog.

There never yet has been a great system sustained by force under which all the best faculties of men have not slowly withered.

I've been down there 6 times and there's nothing like Brazilian percussion.

I think Phish will come back. I just think it's time for a breather.

Steve has the most unbelievable range for a man that I've ever heard.

I had all the material for a long time, but I was just too busy. Sometimes we'd sit around at home and sing some of these songs at family things, and everyone always said I should record them.

I think we really almost burnt ourselves out on one record.

All you have to know is mathematically how many times to scratch it and when to let it go - when certain things will enhance the record you're listening to.

But when they needed love or help or had a problem of any kind, they could always go to Roselle because she was always there for them. That was not always the case with me.

I want the people of New Jersey to jump off a cliff like Kurt Vonnegut so I can show them how to fly. This way, nobody needs to grow any wings, which would be impossible anyway because we're humans and not some kind of bird.

But ya have to make videos in the States. Usually ours just look too serious. We haven't got it together.

It was a good chance for us to play for people who would never have heard us otherwise.