Joe Elliott Quotations

I saw the Stones three years ago at the Wiltern Theater in L.A. and that was mind blowing.

Our only rule was that everything had to come from before we signed our first record deal. The Blondie song ('Hanging on the Telephone') is the most modern one on there. Most of it ended up being from between 1970 and 1973.

We are just fans of music, we are not fans of a specific kind of music. We just happen to be a rock band. Until we explain ourselves, sometimes people don't understand why we limit ourselves to just being a rock band. It's because that is what we like doing.

We wanted to show people, absolutely and as a matter of fact, where we came from. We wanted to put to bed the idea that we were weaned on Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Those were the bands our older brothers listened to. Our true love was always the three-minute pop song.

Same thing with 'Long Long Way to Go' . We like to think we can tell a good song from a so-so song whether it be rock, pop, blues, rap, whatever... Again, for no reason other than curiosity, it was sent to us and we really dug it, so we recorded it. Apparently so did Lionel Ritchie ! Let's not forget here that we DID write the other eleven songs on 'X' !

A fan would get an autograph and that was that. If we didn't tour again for five years, we wouldn't remember them.

So why are we here in Ottawa? ... I'll tell you why. Twenty-five years, that's why.

That's what this tour is, a celebration of our 25 years. We concentrate on the hits, the first time we've done that on tour. We have to drop some of them (for time), but that's a great position to be in. It's like a football coach who has a team where everyone is fit and ready to play.

That's why 60,000 people go ape when the Stones play 'Satisfaction.' The songs are part of their legacy, and you fall back in love with them over the years.

A lot of these bands were huge in Britain but never really made it big in the States,

This is the most bizarre call I've ever had. It was something you'd see on 'COPS,' but not something you go out and do.

It's a great honour to have the dean of Coventry Cathedral conducting the service. It will be a very moving occasion.

It's big production. It's huge. It's using studio technology to your benefit. You don't go in and play live and then just take the tapes and get them mastered. You have to create.

I love the fact we're still on the road. I was born to be a factory worker really, so for me the chance to get on stage at Wembley 30 years after we started is amazing.

I just like being around marching band, and Southside was the first that came to mind,

The club would like to thank Alan and Neil for their excellent service over the years and thank them for all the work they have done.

As much as I am a huge soccer fan, music just kills it when it comes to importance. I could go to a desert island without a football and survive happily, but if I had to go without music, I think I'd end up killing myself. It fuels my soul. It always has.

That's why 60,000 people go ape when the Stones play 'Satisfaction.' The songs are part of their legacy, and you fall back in love with them over the years.

When we try to write a pop song, we go for standard pop arrangements, even to the point where we will go to the key change at the end, which is really cheesy.

With Los Angeles, it's kind of a love-hate thing. Sometimes I think it's marvelous, and sometimes I think it's a dump. It's so fake and I can't deal with how fake it is.

We used to have our own plane with the band's name on the side. It was a dream come true. You drive to a local airport. There's none of this checking in stuff; you just get on the plane.

I've always liked traveling around Europe and seeing the architecture. The buildings in capital cities have been there for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Some look better than the new ones.

I don't really feel any different when I get up on stage.

Manhattan's always fascinating, too, just a big, stinky, smelly conglomeration of numbered avenues and streets, but it's just got a vibe that's hard to beat. I shouldn't like it, but I do. I can't put my finger on it.

In England, rock music very rarely infiltrates the charts, but country music even less so.

Music and soccer. They would be my two major passions.

The best holiday I ever had was the first one I went on without my parents, when I was 17.

To be honest, I'm a bit of a snob now; give me a Four Seasons anywhere in the world and I'm happy. Also, they've just opened a Ritz-Carlton in County Wicklow, Ireland, which is stunning and has great views.

Even Crazy Horses is a good song, by the Osmonds. I've known many bands who have covered that. It's just a great song. I bought it in a brown, paper bag because I didn't want anyone to know I had it.

You don't just go with a majority because it's the majority. You go with it because it's right. If it feels right, do it. As long as it's legal.

If you don't physically age gracefully, it's a bit sad. I think Steven Tyler can get away anything, because he still looks like he did in '73. Especially from row Z backwards in an arena. As long as the Stones keep their hair and don't get fat they'll get away with the wrinkles.

If you can't handle the responsibility of a hit single, don't write one.

Every town in America had at least one, two, or maybe three radio stations that played rock 24 hours a day. In England, we had a rock specialist on for two hours a week.

Just follow your gut. If you seriously believe that something is the right thing to do, if you are so convinced that your stomach is knotting up every time someone suggests an alternative way of doing all this, take a deep breath and just say, "You're wrong."

We just wanted to put a smile on people's faces. That's all we ever wanted to do.

The Vatican takes your breath away.

Any idiot who knows five chords can bang a song together. But it's probably going to be rubbish.

You see mock death in movies every day, but when it really happens, you're not used to it. Most things in life, you get better the more that you do them, but this is one of those things you don't really want to get any better at.

The most frustrating thing for musicians who want to play stuff from the new album is when everyone goes out to buy a beer.

I saw the Stones three years ago at the Wiltern Theater in L.A. and that was mind blowing.

There were incredibly few rock songs making it out to the airwaves until the '80s came along.

Humor is an amazing way to talk people down off a ledge.

If you're driving, don't forget your car.

I wanted to write a song that's known to the world as a classic, stadium-rock anthem.

Writing a song is actually quite easy. Writing a good one is very, very difficult.