Jeff Beck Quotations

I was really small when jazz broke through in England and I can still remember sneaking off to the living room to listen to it on the radio - much to my parent's disapproval.

I don't care about the rules. In fact, if I don't break the rules at least 10 times in every song then I'm not doing my job properly.

I tell them, for a girl, juice up the price of a shot to $3. The bar's not losing any money over it.

Sometimes when I do an overdub solo, they'll keep four or five of my attempts and then mix the bits that they like to make a solo up out of them. It's not against the rules, really - I can learn my own solos, then. But that's the whole beauty of multi-track recording, isn't it?

It's rewarding to be here. The little kids just love it. The weather is cooperating and everybody is coming out to grab some eggs. It's just a few minutes but it's a lot of fun for them.

I like the studio because it's delicate; you're working for sound. I like the garage because chopping up lumps of steel is the exact opposite of delicate. The garage is a more dangerous place though. I've never almost been crushed by a guitar, but I can't say the same about one of my Corvettes.

I play the way I do because it allows me to come up with the sickest sounds possible. That's the point now isn't it?

I play purely from the heart, y'know, and so if it doesn't work the first couple of hours, forget it.

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.

I don't care about the rules, if I don't break the rules at least 10x every song then I'm not doing my job.

I'm a very emotional person. If I've got something on my mind, that would stop me from giving my best.

... by far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt ... Django was quite superhuman, There's nothing normal about him as a person or a player.

At the end of the day, there are a hell of a lot of notes being played out there and I defy the average middle-American or the average punter to differentiate between them.

I never really felt at home with that - the headbands, the roses, the feet, the peace sign, all that bollocks. That wasn't me at all; I felt like a fish totally out of water during the mid-'60s thing.

I do hear snippets on the radio. I do hear a little bit of me, sometimes great chunks of me. But I have to take that as a compliment; there's no way you can get sour grapes about that. But if somebody starts taking your whole new thing lock, stock, and barrel, and do their own version of it before you do it, that's not on.

I wanted to be in Rolling Stone number two with a tomorrow feel to it, like an experimental Rolling Stones with Jagger singing.

London is a dead duck, as far as innovative new music is concerned, unless you want to have your head blown off with some outrageous, rubbish, pounding dance music.

I'm happy in English studios. I just feel like there's no pressure anywhere.

I've tried to become a singer with the guitar and not let any technological licks run my life. Just write the licks and play them as best as I can as a part rather than ad libbing.

I would have loved to have been two people, but I was determined not to devote my entire life to my career.

When Jazz broke through in England, I remember sneaking to listen on the radio much to my parent's disapproval.

There was mass hysteria in the Chess Recording Studio when I did the "Shapes of Things" solo ... they weren't expecting it, and it was just some weird mist coming from the East out of an amp.

Can't stand it. Too many amps, too much volume, it's just flat-out ear assault. Speedy guitars leave me not feeling detached but physically upset. When you think of all the subtleties that were built into the guitar and amps for you to discover they completely cover the whole lot with a rack of effects. The guitar doesn't need that.

If you don't have an album or you don't have any tune, you can't start.

I was interested in the electric guitar even before I knew the difference between electric and acoustic. The electric guitar seemed to be a totally fascinating plank of wood with knobs and switches on it. I just had to have one.

I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don't have too much of it.

Yes, it's in my left ear. It's excruciating... I mean, it's the worst thing 'cause it's not... It never... It does go away - it's not true to say that it doesn't but, uhh... It doesn't... The doctors say it won't... It isn't actually going away - you've just gotta suppress... They try to come to terms with what it actually... Why some people fear it - that's the psychology behind it. They know it's there but why is it such a horrible sound? Well, you can say why is a guy scratching at a window with his nails such a horrible sound - I couldn't put up with that! This is worse!

If you were to plot my success or failure, it goes, it very seldom stays on a high plateau.

I try to become a singer. The guitar has always been abused with distortion units and funny sorts of effects, but when you don't do that and just let the genuine sound come through, there's a whole magic there.

It's a diabolical business. I can't imagine how hellish it must be to be hounded like Amy Winehouse and people like that. I have a little peripheral place on the outskirts of celebrity, when I go to premieres and that sort of stuff, which is as close as I want to get.

I play the way I do cause it allows me to come up w/ the sickest sounds possible. That's the point now isn't it?

My first wife said, 'It's either that guitar or me,' you know -- and I give you three guesses which one went.

I cherish my privacy, and woe betide anyone who tries to interfere with that.

As long as there's something original going on, that's all that matters.

If you can make it sound exciting with a joke drum machine, you know you've got something.

The Strat covers the complete spectrum of human emotion .. the tremolo enables you to do anything - you can hit any note known to mankind

I don’t care about the rules. In fact, if I don’t break the rules at least ten times in every song, then I’m not doing my job properly. Emotion is much more important than making mistakes, so be prepared to look like a chump. If you become too guarded and too processed, the music loses its spontaneity and gut feeling

Nowadays music is as disposable as a McDonald's wrapper.

A lot of solos I hear sound so incredible, but they sound like somebody practicing. They sound a bit soulless - fiery, but at the same time, lacking in spirit and soul.

After I saw Jimmy [Hendrix] play, I just went home and wondered what the f*** I was going to do with my life.

I've never stuck around long enough to know if anyone would miss me. That's rock 'n' roll, though. Here today, gone tomorrow.

That old funny-shaped bit of wood is still staring me in the face every day saying 'come on, you haven't started yet!' It's infinite.

Things turn out better by accident sometimes. But you can't organize accidents.

I don't understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound. Finding ways to use the same guitar people have been using for 50 years to make sounds that no one has heard before is truly what gets me off.

If I'm on form and I'm not being bothered too much by mental problems or whatever, I can whip out something good. That's why I've done quite a few overdubs for Tina Turner and things like that, because even before she made this comeback I said yes to her, just because I love Tina Turner.

You'd be surprised there still are a lot of people who don't know who we are out here.

The catalytic converter gets hotter than any of the other under-car components.