Bob Seger Quotations

Most of the time, I'm here in Michigan and I'm taking out the garbage every Monday.

I grew up with another pretty darn good writer: Glenn Frey of the Eagles. We were very good friends, and we kind of studied it together.

I'm trying to be a good parent and set a good example. When I'm on the road, they don't see a lot of me. I see them every other day. It's pretty all-encompassing when I'm on the road.

I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.

I can only get my drummer in the winter; he plays with Grand Funk all summer.

For a long time, I thought when you do a box set, you're giving up; you're saying, 'OK, I don't have anything left.' But now I've listened to some of the old stuff I haven't heard in 20 to 40 years with fresh ears. It's like, 'Oh yeah, I can see where people might want to to hear some of this stuff that didn't make it onto the records.'

Be original. That's my best advice. You're going to find that there's something that you do well, and try to do it with as much originality as you can, and don't skimp on the words. Work on the words.

I'm just trying to keep things simple, and just be a little more offhand and not get so deep into things. Enjoy what you got right now, because who knows what's going to happen tomorrow.

I never say never, because I don't want to be one of those guys.

I sailboat raced, I love to go out on my motorcycle alone, but I also love my family dearly. I love that aspect of my life as well.

Unlike a lot of people, I don't need the affirmation or anything.

That's a good way to live, go against the wind.

Certain songs are almost like folk songs, which I love. I love folk music, and if you listen to 'Live Bullet,' there's 'Jody Girl,' which is almost a folk song, and I've always loved folk music. Quiet music, I don't try to do that with - I try to set a mood. But most of the stuff I do enjoy recording is up-tempo, and yes, I try to recreate that.

I drive a Mustang. A 2005 five-speed GT convertible.

Great sex is wonderful while it's happening, but who remembers great sex they had in 1983?

When you have kids, you start thinking about their future and you forget about yours.

If I want to work, I can. If I want to play golf, or ride my motorcycle, I can. But the rest of it is family. Sometimes you're not really needed by your family, but you're there. And my kids like to know I'm there.

My father left us when I was 10, so I had to make enough money for us to be able to live in a house because my brother went in the service during Vietnam and I was sole support of my mother. And she had no skills, really, except to clean other people's houses. So I had to have a bunch of jobs, you know, as well as music.

My management tells me, Don't be optimistic, because it's the young people's world now. They want to hear what they want to hear, and you're a classic rocker. I don't know if you're gonna get the play.

I really like the thing I did with Martina McBride. I had that song sitting around for a long time.

When I try to write I try to write something different every time. That's the challenge.

Every now and then you'll nail one that's really, really special. And that's what you live for.

I write probably 80 percent of my stuff over the winter.

Even in junior high, I always knew I had a talent for music and I knew I could make money that way.

I was a runner, a failed quarterback, third-string quarterback, but in track I was a 2-miler.

I'm not a tour rat. I'm not crazy about it.

Elvis came along when I was 10. My father gave me a bass ukulele. I taught myself how to play from a book to play some chords, so I was laying down 'Hound Dog' and things like that when I was 10 years old in 1955. That's the way I was. My ear was glued to the radio. I knew right then what I wanted to do.

I had the opportunity to be around my kids a lot. I guess I could have kept working, but I had them when I was 47. You only get to see all this stuff once. I just chose to work at home and watch them.

I really enjoy being with the people I play with. I enjoy their company. I love the crew, the band - we just move through the country like an army. I always feel very grateful to be up there. There aren't any bad nights anymore unless I'm singing bad, but then the band will carry me. And if they're playing bad, I will carry them..

I still connect with original emotions. 'Night Moves' was written about 1961 or 1962 when I was in high school, and it was about what my friends and I did in that period.

I'm really glad I didn't have kids earlier, because I probably would have ignored them. I was so into my career. I could just go and play a ton of shows, night after night after night. I can't do that anymore.

The studio is really fun because I don't make it into the studio unless I've got something I really like. I love working with different musicians in the studio; that's a real joy, working with someone for the first time.

The two hours onstage is great. But I can only play a show and then take a night off. I have to sing for two hours, and then I've gotta rest it for a night. So it's the other 46 hours that are just boring as heck.

You don't know what inspires you. You like to think you know what inspires you, but in the final analysis I don't think you really do. It's great to look at a blank sheet of paper, you know, and walk up to an instrument and not know what's gonna happen. It's the most challenging thing I do.

You're not going to hear me do a rap song, you're not going to hear me do a jazz song. We have to be true to our roots, do what we do, and try to do it a little better each time.

It took me a long time to learn how to write a good song.

I always loved music. You know, my parents said I started singing when I was 4, in the car.

I do try to go home as much as possible after each show. I've got my own plane. I'm very fortunate.

I just fell into the Dylanesque idea of recording. He is real fast.

I love working with different musicians in the studio, that's a real joy working with someone for the first time.

I've covered so much Tom Waits. He's one of my favorite writers. I have a real affinity to how he writes.

The most famous rumor for me is that I had throat cancer. I never had throat cancer... I don't know why that started... The way I sing, probably.

Yeah, I'm just blessed to have this very strong thing, my vocals. I'm very healthy in that regard.

I'm listing to music all the time. I have favorite artists. Kid Rock loves the Civil Wars' song 'Barton Hollow.' We both said that's our favorite country song of the year. That knocks me out.

I am trying to write stuff that is different. I am a big science fan. I read a lot of science, and 'Wonderland' has a lot of science in it. I don't know. They are hard to describe... We are living in a wonderland age of science.

I did this thing with Trisha Yearwood, a song called 'The Price.' I had been sitting on it for a while, because I figured, you know, this really needs a good singer.

I don't have and have never had an email address. I'm old school. But as far as downloads go, my only objection is I like the sound of CDs better, so I buy those. I think the sound quality is better.

I had kids at age 47, and very late in life, and I'd been doing it for 30 straight years, writing songs, making a record and touring and starting the process right over.

I just start playing music and eventually I sing something, a line of a verse or a B section or a line of a chorus, and the line that I end up singing is related to the music I'm playing, if that makes any sense. And I go from there.

I once won a Grammy for an Australian version of 'Turn the Page' that another artist did; I can't remember his name. There've been covers down through the years around the world, but I did like Metallica's, because I kind of related to Metallica when they first came out, because Jimmy Hetfield really reminded me of me in 1965, you know?

I write a lot of songs people don't hear. I really just enjoy the process. I finish 'em all. I don't think there's a whole lot of difference between the bad ones and the good ones.

My band is so dedicated, everybody works very hard. The No. 1 priority is the show, and it's pretty cool because we all pull together, and it's fun. It's like being on a sports team or something.

We've been really lucky. We've gotten a lot of airplay over the years. I guess people keep requesting our songs on the radio, because Lord knows I don't do a whole lot to promote myself.

We've got to practice three weeks, get the kinks out, then we've got to practice three weeks with the crew, and then go out for four months. It's just a huge chunk of time out of life.

You can't get a good crew and a good sound system, and a good light system if you do a small tour. If you want the best, those guys want a commitment of about 4 to 6 months. And I'd want the best people and the best stuff.

You go to LA, or you go to New York, and it's really fun to go there. But they're not grounded. Everybody is just competing all the time for the limelight. It's too much entertainment industry. There are too many choices. And it's distracting to me.

It's the age of reason for the anarchist.

I'd rather make music than tour.

Some people say love is a losing game, you start with fire and you lose the flame. The ashes smolder, but the warmth's soon gone, you end up cold and lonely on your own.

Make a destination of the greater truth.

My walk had purpose, my steps were quick and light, and I held firmly to what I felt was right.

With only one thing in common, they got the fire down below.

To a brighter light, to a promised land, you can feel the power, of the master's hand.

Here comes old Rosie she's looking mighty fine, here comes hot Nancy she's steppin' right on time. There go the street lights bringing on the night, here come the men faces hidden from the light.

He spent all night staring down at the lights on L.A., wondering if he ever could go home.

I think I'm going to Katmandu, that's really, really where I'm going to

It was 22 years of work in a row, right up until 1987. Twenty-two years in a row-either on tour, writing an album, or recording an album. It wasn't until 1987 that I was able to take a breath.

Alfred Hitchcock, Isaac Newton, Elvis Presley, Captain Bligh, they're heroic or pathetic depending on which book you buy.

I'm not a number. Dammit, I'm a man.

They do respect her but, they love to watch her strut.

She had been born with a face that would let her get away, he saw that face and he lost all control.

It went on yesterday and it's going on tonight, somewhere there's somebody ain't treatin' somebody right.

Beautiful loser, where you gonna fall? When you realize, you just can't have it all.

She never looks at the ring.

Deep in my soul, I've been so lonely, all of my hopes fading away. I've longed for love, like everyone else does, I know I'll keep searching after today.

Radio is so fragmented, it's unbelievable.

The years rolled slowly past and I found myself alone. Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends, I found myself further and further from my home.

Out past the cornfields where the woods got heavy, out in the back seat of my '60 Chevy. Workin' on mysteries without any clues, workin' on our night moves.

I want to be sure I can deliver what people expect to hear. I just don't know if I can physically do it. Or if I should.

Later in the evening when you lie awake in bed with the echoes from the amplifiers ringing in your head.

Well all of Chuck's children are out there playing his licks, get into your kicks. Come back baby, rock and roll never forgets.

There was this long lovely dancer in a little club downtown, love to watch her do her stuff.

Sometimes you can hear them talk, other times you can't. All the same old cliches, is that a woman or a man?

And you pretend it doesn't bother you, When you just want to explode...

She gave me a false address, took off with my American Express, sunspot baby, sure had me way out guessed.

It's a rite of passage for the everyman, to a higher ground.

He wants his home and security, he wants to live like a sailor at sea.

Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time.

Like a rock, standing arrow straight. Like a rock, charging from the gate.

I wish I had a nickel for every time I fell and blamed someone else. I'd give a ton of money to the ones I've hurt.

I used her and she used me, but neither one cared, we were getting our share.

I've never been unhappy with Capitol. Not really. They've been really good by me.

Set yourself the bolder course. Keep your heart an open shrine.

And just about the time I feel like screaming and finding me a wall to punch right through, I look up and I just can't help smiling, it's you.

Here I am, on the road again. There I am, up on the stage. Here I go, playing star again. There I go, turn the page.

I'm older now but still running against the wind

Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.

I work my back 'til it's racked with pain, the boss can't even recall my name.

Tell them we'll be dancing, dancing 'til we drop, it's time to get down and do the Horizontal Bop.

One victim lives in tragedy, another victim stops to stare, and still another walks on by pretending not to see