Bassists

"Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra run around the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments."

"Ladies and gentlemen, please don't associate me with any of this. This is not jazz. These are sick people."

"My son's a painter. All through school his teachers tell him he's a genius. I tell him to paint me an apple that looks like an apple before he paints me one that doesn't. Go where you can go, but start from someplace recognizable. Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."

"In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time."

"That sound in tune to you? ... Sounds sharp to me. Sounds like I'm playing sharp all the time. My singing teacher told us you should do that. Maybe I got it from her. She said singers when they grow old have a tendency to go flat. So if you sing sharp as a young person, as you get older and go flat, you'll be in tune. In other words, it's never thought good to be flat. It means you can't get to the tone."

"Since the white man says he came from the evolution of animals, well, maybe the black man didn't. The white man has made so many errors in the handling of people that maybe he did come from a gorilla or a fish and crawl up on the sand and then into the trees. Of course, evolution doesn't take God into consideration. I don't think people learned to do all the things they do through evolution."

"What do you think happens to a composer who is sincere and loves to write and has to wait thirty years to have someone play a piece of his music? Had I been born in a different country or had I been born white, I am sure I would have expressed my ideas long ago. Maybe they wouldn't have been as good because when people are born free — I can't imagine it, but I've got a feeling that if it's so easy for you — the struggle and the initiative are not as strong as they are for a person who has to struggle and therefore has more to say."

"It seems so hard for some of us to grow up mentally just enough to realize that there are other persons of flesh and bone, just like us, on this great, big earth. And if they don't ever stand still, move, or "swing," they are as right as we are, even if they are as wrong as hell by our standards. Yes, Miles, I am apologizing for my stupid "Blindfold Test." I can do it gladly because I'm learning a little something. No matter how much they try to say that Brubeck doesn't swing — or whatever else they're stewing or whoever else they're brewing — it's factually unimportant. Not because Dave made Time magazine — and a dollar — but mainly because Dave honestly thinks he's swinging. He feels a certain pulse and plays a certain pulse which gives him pleasure and a sense of exaltation because he's sincerely doing something the way he, Dave Brubeck, feels like doing it. And as you said in your story, Miles, "if a guy makes you pat your foot, and if you feel it down your back, etc.," then Dave is the swingingest by your own definition, Miles, because at Newport and elsewhere Dave had the whole house patting its feet and even clapping its hands...."

"I think my own way. I don't think like you and my music isn't meant just for the patting of feet and going down backs. When and if I feel gay and carefree, I write or play that way. When I feel angry I write or play that way — or when I'm happy, or depressed, even. Just because I'm playing jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me, the way I feel, through jazz, or whatever. Music is, or was, a language of the emotions. If someone has been escaping reality, I don't expect him to dig my music, and I would begin to worry about my writing if such a person began to really like it. My music is alive and it's about the living and the dead, about good and evil. It's angry, yet it's real because it knows it's angry."

"Each jazz musician when he takes a horn in his hand — trumpet, bass, saxophone, drums — whatever instrument he plays — each soloist, that is, when he begins to ad lib on a given composition with a title and improvise a new creative melody, this man is taking the place of a composer."

"Now, whether there is feeling or not depends upon what your environment or your association is or whatever you may have in common with the player. If you feel empathy for his personal outlook, you naturally feel him musically more than some other environmental and musical opposite who is, in a way. beyond you. I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn't only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around. But there is no need to compare composers. If you like Beethoven, Bach or Brahms, that's okay. They were all pencil composers. I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer. I thought I was, although no one's mentioned that. I mean critics or musicians. Now, what I'm getting at is that I know I'm a composer. I marvel at composition, at people who are able to take diatonic scales, chromatics, 12-tone scales, or even quarter-tone scales. I admire anyone who can come up with something original. But not originality alone, because there can be originality in stupidity, with no musical description of any emotion or any beauty the man has seen, or any kind of life he has lived."

"Each jazz musician is supposed to be a composer. Whether he is or not, I don't know. I don't listen to that many people. If I did, I probably wouldn't play half as much to satisfy myself. As a youth I read a book by Debussy and he said that as soon as he finished a composition he had to forget it because it got in the way of his doing anything else new and different. And I believed him. I used to work with Tatum, and Tatum knew every tune written, including the classics, and I think it got in the way of his composition, because he wasn't a Bud Powell. He wasn't as melodically inventive as Bud. He was technically flashy and he knew so much music and so much theory that he couldn't come up with anything wrong; it was just exercising his theory."

"Let my children have music! Let them hear live music. Not noise. My children! You do what you want with your own!"

"Mingus was always a disaster to have around. I loved him, but he was worse than a child. He didn't know how to clean up behind himself. He could cook, but there would be eggs on the floor and the ceiling. Couldn't find his shoes when he had to go to work, didn't have a white shirt, couldn't write a check. All he could really do was play the bass and write."

"Although Charles Mingus probably could have performed professionally as a pianist, as evidenced on Mingus Plays Piano and Oh Yeah, he was an absolute monster on the bass, as well an incredibly gifted composer. While his bass skills can be heard on the outstanding 1953 Jazz at Massey Hall live album with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Max Roach, his landmark 1959 Columbia disc, Mingus Ah Um, is hailed by some as his finest recording. It's certainly a great place to start for uninitiated."

"It's so amazing when people tell me that … electronic music has not got soul. And they blame the computers. They got the finger pointed at the computers like, "There's no soul here." … You can't blame the computer. If there's not soul in the music, it's because nobody put it there. And it's not the tool's fault."

"I am grateful grapefruit."

"I don't like records that are the same from beginning to end, that are too styled and slick. Everything is so designed and airbrushed and Botoxed, it makes us think, 'Oh, everybody's perfect except me. Everything's smooth except me.' But nothing is smooth."

"Everyone is bisexual: I’ve always had as many powerful, creative ladies in my life as I have men, and you could probably describe some of those relationships as romantic. I think everyone's bisexual to some degree or another. It's just a question of whether or not you choose to recognise it and embrace it. Personally, I think choosing between men and women is like choosing between cake and ice cream: You'd be daft not to try both when there are so many different flavours."

"But, but, these are the people that made the Busby Berkeley movies, yeah? So they're not exactly subtle."

"It's interesting for me to bring up a girl. You go to the toy store and the female characters there—Cinderella, the lady in Beauty and the Beast—their major task is to find Prince Charming. And I'm like, wait a minute, it's 2005! We've fought so hard to have a say, and not just live through our partners, and yet you're still seeing two-year-old girls with this message pushed at them that the only important thing is to find this amazing dress so that the guy will want you. It's something my mum pointed out to me when I was little—so much [so] that I almost threw up; but, she's right."

"It's a big question. Getting rid of religion would be a good start, wouldn't it? It seems to be causing a lot of havoc."

"The thing about making [Dancer in the Dark] that upset me most was how cruel Lars is to the woman he is working with. Not that I can't take it, because I'm pretty tough and completely capable of defending myself, but because my ideals of the ultimate creator were shattered. And my friend said, 'What did you expect? All major directors are sexist; a maker is not necessarily an expert in human rights or female–male equality.' My answer was that you can take quite sexist film directors like Woody Allen or Stanley Kubrick, and still they are the one[s] that provide the soul to their movies. In Lars von Trier's case it is not so, and he knows it. He needs a female to provide his work soul. And he envies them and hates them for it. So he has to destroy them during the filming, and hide the evidence. What saves him as an artist, though, is that he is so painfully honest that even though he will manage to cover up his crime in the "real" world (he is a genius to set things up [so] that everybody thinks it is just his female-actress-at-the-moment imagination, that she is just hysterical or pre-menstrual), his films become a documentation of this 'soul-robbery'. Breaking the Waves is the clearest example of that."

"You know, it's ironic that just at the point the lawyers and the businessmen had calculated how to control music, the Internet comes along and fucks everything up." Björk gives the finger again, this time waving it into the air. "God bless the Internet," she adds. And what about you, then? "I'll still be there, waving a pirate flag."

"There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic To human behaviour … There's no map And a compass Wouldn't help at all"

"His wicked sense of humour suggests exciting sex His fingers focus on her Her touches He's Venus as a boy"

"I'm back at my cliff Still throwing things off I listen to the sounds they make On their way down I follow with my eyes 'til they crash Imagine what my body would sound like Slamming against those rocks And when it lands Will my eyes Be closed or open?"

"I'm a fountain of blood In the shape of a girl … Leave me now, return tonight Tide will show you the way If you forget my name You will go astrayLike a killer whaleTrapped in a bay"

"If travel is searching And home what's been found I'm not stopping I'm going hunting I'm the hunter I'll bring back the goods But I don't know when"

"I thought I could organize freedom How Scandinavian of me"

"I want to go on a mountaintop With a radio and good batteries And play a joyous tune And free the Human Race From suffering (saccharine)"

"I'm no fucking Buddhist But this is enlightenment The less room you give me (Happiness) The more space I've got It doesn't scare me at all"

"You'll be given love You'll be taken care of You'll be given love You have to trust it"

"Emotional landscapes They puzzle me The riddle gets solved and you push me up to This state of emergency How beautiful to be State of emergency Is where I want to be"

"I dare you to take me on I dare you to show me your palms I'm so bored of cowards who say they want (love) Then they can't handle love"

"He offers a handshake, crooked five fingers They form a pattern yet to be matched On the surface simplicity But the darkest pit in me Is pagan poetry"

"Oh thou that bowest Thy ecstatic face Thy perfect sorrows Are the world's to keep Wherefore onto thy knees Come we With a prayer"

"When in doubt, give."

"You have done Good for yourselves Since you left my wet embrace And crawled ashore … My sons and my daughters Ho-oh Your sweat is salty I am why"

"Declare independence Don't let them do that to you ... Start your own currency Make your own stamp Protect your language"

"Do not fuck with Björk! Björk will beat your ass! … I saw Björk beat this woman's ass one time in this videotape. She was in the Bangkok Airport and she was pushing her luggage cart, and this woman came up and just touched her, and Björk went [roars and hisses]. And it was so scary because you didn't expect it at all, because Björk is so cute. … And Björk called the woman she attacked afterwards to apologize. 'I'm very sorry I tried to pull your eyes up over your head. Somebody must have fed me after midnight.' But Björk wore the best dress ever to the Oscars ever: She wore a swan. And I'm not talking about a dress with white feathers on it. Oh, no. She rocked the whole bird. The beak was up here and shit. And she accessorized it with an egg. What else you gon' wear with your bird? And all of the fashion magazines said she was the worst dressed, but when they say you're the worst, that means you're the best."

"I … thought about all the artists that I really respected and liked. They were just them. … They're people who always stuck to who they were, and were true and honest about who they were. So, I think that kind of gave me … confidence to just stick at it. Just thinking about people like Björk. You know? [Like] Bob Dylan … artists that truly were strong in themselves."

"She has a weird energy about her as a woman. We were in this town to do a show, and she spread such positive vibes. There were birds singing, and rainbows; we could even see a tornado going on. We could actually see it! … I think that every artist has an aura and persona that develops, and Björk spreads such a positive energy. You can just feel it."

"Asked what his artistic purpose was: "There is no purpose. We do whatever we do. You either blow your brains out or get on with something.""

"I’m not a huge practicing Christian myself, but it just staggers me that people who claim to be can stand up and spout – like your president George [H.W.] Bush – can stand up and spout this bullshit about God supporting one side over another in war, which is why I wrote the lyrics of the song "What God Wants": "God wants crusade/God wants Jihad." Well it may well be that God doesn’t want either of those things. They’re manifestations of the insecurities of the Muslim and Christian communities. I hate when someone uses religion to bolster war in the world: it's extremely disgusting and offensive for me, and for all christians, because that was not what Christ was trying to teach.""

"What it comes down to for me is: Will the technologies of communication and culture — and especially popular music, which is a vast and beloved enterprise — help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart?"

"The very early days of Pink Floyd were magical. We played small auditoriums for entranced audiences, and there was a wonderful sense of communion. We got overpowered by the weight of success and numbers — not just the money but the size of the audience. I became very disenchanted. I had to make the choice of staying on the treadmill or making the braver decision to travel a more difficult path alone."

"I think that happiness resides somewhere between the extremes of personal, religious, and political. I think happiness resides where we understand someone else's point of view and needs. Happiness resides where we are not lost in the solitary dream.""

"For us the most important thing is to be visual, and for the cats watching us to have fun. This is all we want. We get very upset if people get bored when we're only half way through smashing the second set. Then all of a sudden they hear Arnold Layne and they flip all over again."

"We've got the recording side together and not the playing side."

"It's like saying 'Give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton,' you know. It's not true. And give a man an amplifier and a synthesizer, and he doesn't become whoever, you know. He doesn't become us."

"In the finished article, the only thing that is important is whether it moves you or not. There is nothing else that is important at all."

"Oh, for fuck sake stop lighting off fireworks and shouting & screaming I'm trying to sing a song! I mean I don't care. If you don't want to hear it. You know fuck you. I'm sure there are a lot of people here who do want to hear it. So why don't you just be quiet. If you want to light your fireworks off go outside and light them off out there and if you want to shout and scream well then go and do it out there.... but. I am trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. I want to listen to it."

"Earlier this year we went skiing and I was in a shop, paying a bill and there was a woman standing there whom I knew slightly. I was waiting for my bill and she was buying something, a tea strainer. Quite suddenly she said to me, 'Where was your Father killed?'. I was very surprised and blurted out 'Oh Anzio'. Now this is a woman of about my age, so she's 40-ish. She said, 'My Father was killed in the war'. Apparently somebody lent her a copy of The Final Cut and she had listened to the whole thing and she had found it very moving. In fact she said it had moved her to tears. She told me this, standing in the shop, with some effort I suspect, and I remember thinking: That's enough really. It doesn't matter if the Americans don't buy it."

"I have nothing against Dave Gilmour furthering his own goals. It's just the idea of Dave's solo career masquerading as Pink Floyd that offends me!"

"Either you write songs or you don't. And if you do write songs like I do, I think there's a natural desire to want to make records. So, when I left Pink Floyd, I guess I had two, no three choices open to me: Not to do it anymore, which is daft as I was writing songs, although I suppose I could have written for other people, but I like making records; so I could either do it as Roger Waters or I could have got together with other people and said hey, why don't we start a band? But my view of bands had been jaundiced slightly by my previous experience, so I think that was something I never considered."

"I had at one point this rather depressing image of some alien culture seeing the death of this planet - coming down in their spaceships and sniffing around; finding all our skeletons sitting around our TV sets and trying to work out why our end came before its time and they come to the conclusion that we amused ourselves to death."

"Well, anyway, I am one of the best five writers to come out of English music since the War."

"It was very, very hard work organizing that Wall concert but everyone was fabulous to work with - Bryan Adams, Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, bloody brilliant. All brilliant. Except for Sinead O'Connor... She doesn't understand anything. She's just a silly little girl. You can't just lie in the corner and shave your bloody head and stick it up your arse and occasionally pull it out to go (_"brogue"_) 'Oh, I tink this is wrong and dat is wrong' and burst into tears."

"Andrew Lloyd Webber sickens me. He's in your face all the time and what he does is nonsense. It has no value. It is shallow, derivative rubbish, all of it, and it makes me very gloomy. Actually, I've never been to one of his shows but having put that slightly savage joke on the record, I thought I'd better listen to some Andrew Lloyd Webber and I was staying in a rented house in America this summer and the people who owned the house had a whole bunch of his rubbish so I thought I'd listen to Phantom Of The Opera and I put the record on and I was slightly apprehensive. I thought, Christ, I hope this isn't good - or even mediocre. I was not disappointed. Phantom Of The Opera is absolutely fucking horrible from start to finish."

"Radio One won't play my fucking single ("What God Wants") because they know it's no good. They know it's not as good as Erasure or Janet fucking Jackson. They know that the British public shouldn't be listening to it. It makes my blood boil! If you're not 17 with a baseball hat on back to front, they don't want to know.""

"I was quite happy standing there thundering about, playing whatever I could - that's "fun". And I see young bands occasionally now doing the same thing. I think it's called "thrash" now. It's the same thing: It's just kids who can't play, pissing about. It's terrific. That's all we were doing. I mean, Dave could play a little bit, but none of the rest of us could."

"It's actually quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you. Anyway, we're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particulary of course for Syd"

"I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon. Let’s get rid of all this 'we' c--p! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!"

"On the club scene we rate about two out of ten and 'Must try harder.' "We've had problems with our equipment and we can't get the P.A. to work because we play extremely loudly. It's a pity because Syd (singer Syd Barrett) writes great lyrics and nobody ever hears them."

"Well, he's schizophrenic. And has been since 1968."

"Syd was a genius. But I wouldn't want to go back to playing Interstellar Overdrive for hours and hours."

"Oh, they [the media] definitely don't want to know the real Barrett story... there are no facts involved in the Barrett story so they can make up any story they like, and they do. There's a vague basis in fact: Syd was in the band and he did write the material on the first album, 80% of it, but that's all. It is only that one album, and that's what people don't realise. That first album, and one track on the second. That's all; nothing else."

"I could never aspire to Syd's crazed insights and perceptions. In fact for a long time I wouldn't have dreamt of claiming any insights whatsoever. I'll always credit Syd with the connection he made between his personal unconscious and the collective group unconscious. It's taken me 15 years to get anywhere near there. Even though he was clearly out of control when making his two solo albums, some of the work is staggeringly evocative. It's the humanity of it all that's so impressive. It's about deeply felt values and beliefs. Maybe that's what 'Dark Side of the Moon' was aspiring to. A similar feeling.""

"Witness the man who raves at the wall Making the shape of his question to Heaven Whether the sun will fall in the evening Will he remember the lesson of giving Set the controls for the heart of the sun"

"Music seems to help the pain, seems to motivate the brain"

"And through the window in the wall Comes streaming in on sunlight wings A million bright ambassadors of morning."

"Strangers passing in the street By chance two separate glances meet And I am you and what I see is me."

"The memories of a man in his old age Are the deeds of a man in his prime. You shuffle in gloom of the sickroom And talk to yourself as you die. Life is a short, warm moment And death is a long cold rest. You get your chance to try in the twinkling of an eye: Eighty years, with luck, or even less.""

"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be."

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way. Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown, Waiting for someone or something to show you the way. Tired of lying in the sunshine, Staying home to watch the rain, You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find, ten years have gone behind you No one told you when to run, You missed the starting gun."

"And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking And racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death."

"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way."

"All that is now All that is gone All that's to come and everything under the sun is in tune but the sun is eclipsed by the moon."

"How I wish you were here, We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl year after year. Running over the same old ground, What have we found? The same old fears, Wish you were here."

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want He makes me down to lie Through pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by. With bright knives He releaseth my soul. He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places. He converteth me to lamb cutlets, For lo, He hath great power, and great hunger. When cometh the day we lowly ones, Through quiet reflection, and great dedication Master the art of karate, Lo, we shall rise up, And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.""

"Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream"

"When we grew up and went to school There were certain teachers who Would hurt the children in any way they could. By pouring their derision upon anything we did Exposing every weakness However carefully hidden by the kid. But in the town it was well known When they got home at night Their fat and psychopathic wives Would thrash them within inches of their lives!"

"We don't need no education We don't need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers leave them kids alone Hey! Teacher! Leave them Kids alone!""

"You are only coming through in waves, Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying, When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse, out of the corner of my eye, I turned to look but it was gone, I cannot put my finger on it now, The child is grown, The dream has gone, And I have become Comfortably Numb"

"Through the fish-eyed lens of tear-stained eyes I can barely define the shape of this moment in time and far from flying high in clear blue skies I'm spiralling down to the hole in the ground where I hide."

"And now from where I stand Upon this hill I plundered from the pool I look around, I search the skies I shade my eyes, so nearly blind And I see signs of half remembered days I hear bells that chime in strange familiar ways I recognise........ The hope you kindle in your eyes"

"They like a bomb-proof Cadillac Air-conditioned, gold taps Back-seat gun rack, Platinum hub caps They pick horses for courses They're the market forces They like order, make-up, limelight, power Game shows, rodeos, Star Wars, TV They're The Powers That Be If you see them come, you better run"

"You wake up in the morning Find some things for the pot Wonder why the sun makes the rocks feel hot Draw on the walls, eat, get laid Back in the good old days Then some damn fool invents the wheel Listen to the white-walls squeal You spend all day looking for a parking spot Nothing for the heart, nothing for the pot"

"I used to think the world was flat Rarely threw my hat into the crowd I felt I had used up my quota of yearning Used to look in on the children at night In the glow of their Donald Duck light And frighten myself with the thought of my little ones burning But ooh, the tide is turning The tide is turning."

"Who is the strongest, who is the best Who holds the aces, the East or the West This is the crap that our children are learningBut ooh, the tide is turning."

"I'm not saying the battle is won But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun Wrested technology's sword from the hands of the warlords Ooh, the tide is turning Ooh, the tide is turning."

"And when they found our shadows Grouped around the TV sets They ran down every lead They repeated every test They checked out all the data on their lists And then the alien anthropologists Admitted they were still perplexed But on eliminating every other reason For our sad demise They logged the only explanation left This species has amused itself to death.""

"And the Germans killed the Jews And the Jews killed the Arabs And the Arabs killed the hostages And that is the news And is it any wonder That the monkey's confused He said Mama Mama The President's a fool Why do I have to keep reading These technical manuals?""

"Can't you see It all makes perfect sense Expressed in dollars and cents, Pounds, shillings and pence Can't you see It all makes perfect sense""

"The monkey sat on a pile of stone And he stared at the broken bone in his hand Strains of a Viennese quartet rang out across the land The monkey looked up at the stars And he thought to himself Memory is a stranger History is for fools And he cleaned his hands in a pool of holy writing Turned his back on the garden and set out for the nearest town""

"Oh George! Oh George! That Texas education must have fucked you up when you were very small"

"America, America, please hear us when we call You got hip-hop, be-bop, hustle and bustle You got Atticus Finch You got Jane Russell You got freedom of speech You got great beaches, wildernesses and malls Don't let the might, the Christian right, fuck it all up For you and the rest of the world"

"Have you heard It was on the news Your child can read you like a bedtime story Like a magazine Like a has-been out to grass Like afternoon T.V. Why is my life going by so fast?"

"Life is long but it goes fast. The kids will have to separate Their future from our past."

"The ghosts are walking by my side I feel their love I feel their pride For I have built a bridge or two Bridges between me and you. Hello I love you."

"The Jewish lobby is extraordinary powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock’n roll as they say."

"[The Israeli Rabbinate believes non-Jews exist] to serve them ... they believe that the Indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human."

"I would not have played for the Vichy government in occupied France in WWII, would not have played in Berlin either during this time. Many people did, back in the day. There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinians being murdered."

"The antisemitism smear sword that was wielded at the behest of the Israeli government, specifically aimed at Jeremy Corbyn because he was left wing and he might turn into a political leader on the left in the United Kingdom who would actually stand up for human rights in general but specifically the rights of working people to represent themselves and have unions."

"It's about a bunch of Europeans back in the middle of the 19th century deciding that they were going to take over this piece of land, and kick out anybody that lived there and take it over for themselves and their own little cabal."

"The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms [...] [A]ttempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated."

"The depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd's The Wall in 1980. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price."

"You [Christian Wakeford] were making s*** up because you were told to by your masters in the Foreign Office in Tel Aviv because of this hate. This hate is being organised from Israel. And I’m not afraid to say it because I know Christian Wakeford, that what I'm saying is not a lie."

"[Regarding the spate of High School shootings of 1999] in the Colorado shootings, the media seemed to change their tack a bit. Though they attached ghoulishly to it, covered it 24 hours a day and even gave it a logo like 'Horror in the Rockies', they did address issues of alienation and pain rather than just saying, 'oh, these aberrant teen-agers have to be stamped out.' After denigrating self-help ideas for the last 20 years, the media are beginning to look at the psychology and not just the police work."

"I like to think oysters transcend national barriers, Adrian. - Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii video, in an interview with director Adrian Maben."

"Are there any paranoids in the audience tonight? (the crowd cheers) Is there anyone who worries about things? (the crowd cheers again) Pathetic. This is for all the weak people in the audience! Is there anyone here who's weak? (the crowd cheers once more) This is for you, it's called Run Like Hell! (the song starts)""

"Who's got my pig?"

"My mother told me I said to her, at age three, 'I'm going to go to Italy and get my father in a tractor.' 'You've never seen quite so fierce a little boy as you were,' she told me. She tried to explain that I couldn't get my father in a tractor. Apparently I looked at her and narrowed my eyes and said 'In that case, I'm going in a double-decker bus,' and stomped off. Which is kind of funny, but it's very sad, as well.""

"[Asked if he has ever changed his mind on a topic.] Yes, an article I wrote about three months ago calling Vladimir Putin a gangster… That may have been unfair [...] It may be that he's leading his country to the benefit of all of the people of Russia."

"Francesca Albanese is the good"

"I hate the word "artist," but I would definitely concede that Roger is a great artist ... as well as a total obsessive and psychiatrist's dream."

"If the immediate association you make to last year’s killing of an Al Jazeera reporter [Shireen Abu Akleh] by an Israeli soldier in Jenin is to the death of a Jewish girl [Anne Frank] in a German concentration camp in 1945, if you can't find in all that has happened in the 77 years between those two deaths a better comparison of victimhood, then you don’t have a problem with Israel. You have a problem with Jews. The feat of logical gymnastics performed by Waters – at once both equating Jews to monstrous Nazis and belittling the Nazi wholesale extermination of Jews – is such a classic antisemitic move that it should not need even explaining."

"You are anti-Semitic to your rotten core [...] Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac."

"The concert in question, which took place in Berlin, contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust. The artist in question has a long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people."

"You rarely find a song written in an odd meter that feels so groove [in "Money"]. Honestly, the main riff feels like 4/4, despite being in 7/4. Only Roger Waters can come up with something like that."

"I love all those great 'f' words - feminism, folk music.."

"In any marginalized community, whether people identify themselves or not affects us all."

"I believe in that step of not just making revolutionary music but making it in a way that challenges the system, Especially in this day and age when the tools for producing and distributing are more and more accessible to the average Joe and Josephine. The possibility of emancipation and control and independence is so much greater now."

"I think I'm done gunnin to get closer. To some imagined bliss. I gotta knuckle down. And just be ok with this."

"There's this brutal imperial power, that my passport says I represent. But it will never represent where my heart lives, only vaguely where it went."

"I don't always feel lucky, but I'm smart enough to try."

"Every tool is a weapon - if you hold it right."

"They're gonna be mad at us. They're gonna be mad at me and you. They're gonna be mad at us and all the things we wanna do."

"I used to be a superhero. No one could touch me, not even myself. You are like a phone booth that I somehow stumbled into, And now look at me, I am just like everybody else."

"I am still praying for revolution."

"Some of life's best lessons are learned at the worst times."

"Because the world owes me nothing And we owe each other the world."

"I am writing graffiti on your body. I am drawing the story of how hard we tried."

"Somedays the line I walk turns out to be straight - Other days the line tends to deviate."

"And their eyes are all asking Are you in or are you out? And I think, oh man What is this about? Tonight you can't put me Up on any shelf Cuz I came here alone And I'm gonna leave by myself."

"They say that the truth will set you free But then again, so will a lie... It depends if you're trying to get to the promised land Or if you're just trying to get by."

"I’m going to go ahead and go boldly Cuz a little bird told me That jumping is easy That falling is fun Right up ‘til you hit the sidewalk Shivering and stunned."

"So we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter Serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water And the old farm road's a four-lane that leads to the mall And our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall."

"My distraction's my defense against this lack of inspiration Against this slow deflation Yeah the further the horizon The more it holds my gaze The foreground's out of focus but you know I kinda hope it's just a phase Just a phase."

"They can call me crazy if I fail All the chance that I need Is one in a million And they can call me brilliant If I succeed…"

"The windows of my soul are made of one way glass Don't bother looking into my eyes If there's something you want to know - just ask."

"Because I know the biggest crime Is just to throw up your hands And say "This has nothing to do with me, I just want to live as comfortably as I can."

"You've got your whole life to do something, And that's not very long. So why don't you give me a call When you're willing to fight For what you think is real, For what you think is right."

"Girl, next time he wants to know What your problem is Next time he wants to know Where the anger comes from Just tell him this time the problem's his Tell him the anger just comes It just comes."

"And God help you if you are a phoenix, and you dare to rise up from the ash. A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy, while you're just flying past."

"Now let's get talking: reefer madness. Like some arrogant government can't, By any stretch of the imagination, outlaw a plant."

"So I walk like I'm on a mission cuz that's the way I groove. I got more and more to do, I got less and less to prove. It took me too long to realize that I don't take good pictures Cuz I have the kind of beauty that moves."

"And we hold these truths to be self-evident: Number one-- George W. Bush is not president. Number two-- America is not a true democracy. And, Number three-- the media is not fooling me."

"Now I wonder who is gonna be president: Tweedle Dumb, or Tweedle Dumber-- And who is gonna have the big block buster box office this summer."

"Maybe you don't like your job, maybe you didn't get enough sleep-- But nobody likes their job, nobody got enough sleep. Maybe you just had the worst day of your life; Well, you know, there's no escape. That's no excuse. Just suck up and be nice."

"My country tis of thee, To take swings at each other on talk-show TV."

"Art is why I get up in the morning; my definition ends there. You know it doesn't seem fair, That I'm living for something I can't even define. And there you are right there, in the mean time."

"My thighs have been involved in many accidents, And now I can't get insured, And I don't need to be lured by you. My cunt is built like a wound that won't heal, And now you don't have to ask Because you know how I feel."

"So my heart finally broke. It was so long bent. And it broke in three places when it finally went. It wanted only to say what it meant. So it suffered every punishment."

"'Course numb is an old hat, old as my oldest memories. See that one's my mother, and that one's my father, and that one in the hat, that's me. It's a skill I'd hoped to abandon, when I got out on the open road, But any more pent up emotion and I think I'm gonna explode."

"And I was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station, if we drive out of range."

"If you're not angry, you're just stupid, or you don't care."

"There's a crowd of people harbored in every person, there are so many roles that we play. And you've decided to love me for eternity. I'm still deciding who I want to be today""

"Let's grow old and die together. Let's do it now."

"When I need to wipe my face, I use the back of my hand, And I like to take up space just because I can, And I use my dress to wipe up my drink. I care less and less what people think."

"So I’ll walk the plank and I’ll jump with a smile. If I’m gonna go down, I’m gonna do it with style, and you won't see me surrender, you won't hear me confess, 'Cuz you've left me with nothing, but i've worked with less."

"You know Taken out of context I must Seem so strange."

"And everything seems to have gone terribly wrong that can. But one breath at a time is an acceptable plan, She tells herself."

"My life may not be something special But it's never been lived before."

"We discovered we are both pleasantly furious half of the time, When we're not just toeing the line."

"I was blessed with a birth and a death, and I guess I just want some say in-between."

"Freedom and democracy, That's the word from Washington every day. Put America to sleep with warm milk and clichés, And people are expendable along the way."

"They put you in your place, and they tell you to behave But no one can be free until we're all on even grade."

"Life is a b movie. It's stupid and it's strange, A directionless story, And the dialogue is lame. But in the he said, she said, Sometimes there's some poetry, If you turn your back long enough, And let it happen naturally."

"I fight with love, and I laugh with rage. You've gotta live light enough to see the humor, And long enough to see some change."

"I remember now how our bright spring green deepened. With the years the seasons changed, And we were lush as the underside of August."

"Love sets fire to your schedule, And then calls an end to time."

"I still define myself by the places that I've been."

"I always wanted to be commander-in-chief of my one-woman army, But I can envision the mediocrity of my finest hour."

"I know there is strength in the differences between us, And I know there is comfort where we overlap."

"I think you're the least fucked-up person I've ever met, And that may be as close to the real thing as I'm ever gonna get."

"Sometimes the beauty is easy. Sometimes you don't have to try at all. Sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake. Sometimes there's poetry written right on the bathroom wall."

"She says “Do I know you?” I say “Well, no, not biblically, But I've been waiting for you to come and talk to me. I have been playing too many of those boy-girl games.” She says, “Honey, you are safe here. This is a girl-girl thing.”"

"I am looking for the holes, The holes in your jeans Because I want to know: Are they worn out in the seat, Or are they worn out in the knees?"

"When we patch things up, They say a job well done. But when we ask the question why Where did the rips come from?, They say we are subversive, And extreme, of course. We are just trying to track a problem to its source."

"I always feel I have to take a stand, And there's always someone on hand To hate me for standing there. I always feel I have to open my mouth, And every time I do, I offend someone, somewhere."

"But what if no one's watching? What if when we're dead, we are just dead? What if there's no time to lose? What if there's things we gotta do, Things that need to be said?"

"We have to be able to criticize what we love, Say what we have to say, 'Cause if you're not trying to make something better, Then as far as I can tell, you are just in the way."

"People used to make records, as in the record of an event, the event of people playing music in a room, and now everything's cross-marketing, its about sunglasses and shoes, or guns and drugs that you choose.""

"Being single is like liking a Phil Spector record."

"All of us have the privilege of making music that helps and heals — to make music that makes people happier, stronger and kinder. Don't forget: music is God's voice."

"Being called a musical genius was a cross to bear. Genius is a big word. But if you have to live up to something, you might as well live up to that. God damn!"

"On all of [our Beach Boys records] I said this is a smash! this is a number one smash! And that's how I used to talk to people. I'd talk to Mike Love, I'd say we've got a Top Ten smash on our hands! On Billboard, on Cashbox. And then finally it'd go to number one and I'd call him and say, "We've made it to number one!" and he'd go, "Whoa!" We'd get excited, right. We couldn't help it. It's an exciting thing to get a number one record. A number one record is like the first time you ever fucked a girl, it's a thrill. You know what I mean?"

"You don't want to be scared all the time. There are other emotions besides fear. You've got anger. You've got jealousy. You've got joy. You've got fascination. You've got jealousy. You've got anger. You've got frustration. You've got hunger. You've got all those emotions. But that's how it's strung together. We strung all these hits together. One hit, strung it together. Another hit, strung it together. Another hit, strung it together. And pretty soon we had a string of hits."

"I would have the musicians keep playing over and over again till the sound made sense. I worked overtime on that; I worked hours to get it right. If the sound didn't make any sense, then I wouldn't know what to do — I'd be lost! It's instinct that tells me. I have an instinct for music, or a feeling about it, and I'll have my feelings guide my hands."

"It was very competitive in the '60s. And everybody caught the bug, y'know? It was like a “competitive bug.” And, as far as I could see, everybody was turning everybody on. … The Beatles were a part of that whole “competition” thing. Rubber Soul blew my mind. It really made me wanna record; it made me wanna cut. It sounds like a collection of songs that belong together, and it was an uplifting feeling. So I thought I'd make a collection of songs — called Pet Sounds — together. That's how I got that idea. … I'm proud of it. I think it's a very everlasting album. I'm very proud of the love that went into it. A lot of love went into that album. And people pick up on that too, and they really like it 'cause they feel the love."

"I think because I felt so sad I had to bring out my feelings, and try to create music that would make me and all my friends feel better."

"It's funny how people are pickin' up on our music now, you know? I think it's wonderful that people like our music."

"I met Paul in 1967, Ringo in 1985, and I saw George Harrison in a nightclub somewhere in L. A. I never met John."

"We wanted to bring some love to the world. I thought we were good at doing that. Bringin' love to the world."

"I'm doing good. I've had a slight nervous breakdown in the '60s. I got through that. And I got through the '70s. And I was in a doctor's program during the '80s and then I met Melinda and we've been together ever since. I've got a happy life."

"Did I suffer from depression? Yes, a little, from time to time. Yes. … I'm not as depressed as I was. I get depressed now and then but not very much anymore. … At the height of it it was just God-awful. It was really bad."

"It started out — my mom and dad took a little vacation to Mexico and they left $250 for food. But instead of food we went and bought some instruments. We got a bass, guitar and a set of drums. … I was 19. Dennis was 15. Carl was 17. Mike was 18. Al was 19. And so we wrote a song called "Surfin'" in my living room. We were all playing and singing and Mike and I wrote a song called "Surfin'" and that's how it all started."

"Dennis surfed. I couldn't surf. I never learned how."

"The sound was essentially background sound, myself, and Carl, Dennis and Al Jardine, Mike was our lead singer. The four of us put our voices together. We had done it really beautifully. We had a beautiful blend. We really did."

"My cousin came over to my house one day just to fool around and we said — he said, some day we should start a rock n' roll group. We could all get together. And I said, I know I guy named Al Jardine who plays bass and could probably sing good. You know. So we went from there."

"I was very, very surprised. I never thought I would be that loved or respected."

"Now and then I'll be a little brief with some of my band members. I won't talk or I'll refrain from talking to my band while we're rehearsing. But basically I am friendly with people. … I'll go on cold streaks. I'll work with a collaborator then I'll stop calling the collaborator for a couple weeks. I'll say I need a break from you for a couple weeks. But they're "OK, fine, fine, I'll see you in two weeks.""

"I talked to Paul McCartney over the years ranging from 1967 to 2004. … At the landmine show he did "God Only Knows" with me and I did "Let It Be" with him. And then I called him about four months ago asking him if he could come out and do — sing a song called "A Friend Like You," which I wrote for him, me and my collaborator wrote for him. And he said he'd love to come out. And he came to the studio and that was one of the bigger thrills of my life to tell you the truth, to produce Paul McCartney. And that was a thrill for me. That was a thrill."

"If there's not love present, it's much, much harder to function. When there's love present, it's easier to deal with life."

"Humor — it helps to make the vibe better — it loosens up the vibrations."

"Spirituality amounts to love with me. I consider it the same as love. And my band members are full of love."

"When people hear music that is spiritual it gets through. Music that is Godlike and loving gets through. I don’t have any power in this world, but I have spiritual power. I think God gave me my music and my talent. I’m trying to get across a feeling of spirituality; I think I have a spiritual influence on people."

"I think about God, yes, and I wonder if there is a God. And if there is a God, will God please help me through my hard trips."

"Brian didn't really write lyrics to the songs; he edited them. That means he might have simply said that he didn't like a particular line. I would then have tried to convince him of its merit, if I felt strongly about it, or I would have written an alternate in an attempt to get closer to what he seemed to be after. None of this is to say that he didn't supply words to some of the songs. He did. But his role was more to react to what I did after I did it, rather than to direct it before it occurred or even as it was occurring. It's fair to say that the general tenor of the lyrics was always his and the actual choice of words was usually mine. I was really just the interpreter."

"There is a new song, too complex to get all of first time around. It could come only out of the ferment that characterizes today's pop music scene. Brian Wilson, leader of the famous Beach Boys, and one of today's most important musicians, sings his own 'Surf's Up.' Poetic, beautiful even in its obscurity, 'Surf's Up' is one aspect of new things happening in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these young musicians see in our future."

"I've always liked Brian Wilson all the way through The Beach Boys. But Pet Sounds blew me away. It’s still one of my favorite albums. When I first heard it, I thought, Wow, this is the greatest record of all time! Brian took the bass into very unusual places. The band would play in C, and Brian would stay in G. That kind of thing. It gave me great ideas. That musical invention of Brian Wilson was eye-opening, I mean, ear-opening. ... It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much. I’ve just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life … I figure no one is educated musically ’til they’ve heard that album … I love the orchestra, the arrangements … it may be going overboard to say it’s the classic of the century … but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways … I’ve often played Pet Sounds and cried."

"He's a modern day Stravinsky, the way he constructs his music, he's a madman.... He was doing stuff [40 years ago] that modern people do now, looping his work and stuff. There's a track on Smile with a whole bunch of tubas having a conversation with trumpets. It's great."

"The one thing that stopped Pet Sounds from being the best album ever made was that the titles are not memorable at all. The tunes are just sensational, though. Ever since, I've been a giant fan of Brian."

"No one can deny the talent and spark of energy that Burton left with Metallica and his inspiration and influence to bass players is still strong. His iconic style of speed picking the bass and convulsion like head movements are the essence and model of head banging. Though Metallica have gone on to become arguably the biggest band in heavy metal, the era of Cliff Burton cannot and should not be forgotten, the spirit, speed and musicianship be brought to the band can’t be matched, no offense to Newsted or Trujillo."

"When it comes to Cliff Burton, it's a tale of what could have been. A legend in the making with Metallica, Burton was only 24 when he was killed after the band's tour bus crashed on an icy road in rural Sweden in 1986. In the wake of that tragedy, Burton's legacy continued to live on even as Metallica became one of the biggest bands in the world. The hair-swinging, spaceship-sounding, bass-playing Burton was a major presence on the band's first three albums that remain metal masterpieces. For a true taste of Burton's greatness, listen to his work "(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth," "The Call of Ktulu," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and "Orion.""

"It seems as if I am making a comeback but I have never really been away. It’s very strange because the whole attitude changes and everything is turned inside out. Now I am seeing the shiny side again."

"Art was what I originally started out to do and music came second at first. I had a year at art college but I left because it was too much like school. I give all my paintings away to people I like."

"Geoffrey Robertson: You don't think that this man deserves to die? Yusuf Islam: Who, Salman Rushdie? Robertson: Yes. Islam: Yes, yes. Robertson: And do you have a duty to be his executioner? Islam: Uh, no, not necessarily, unless we were in an Islamic state and I was ordered by a judge or by the authority to carry out such an act — perhaps, yes."

"Rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author Salman Rushdie, I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing."

"If Rushdie turned up at my doorstep looking for help, I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like. I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is."

"In Islam there is a line between let's say freedom and the line which is then transgressed into immorality and irresponsibility and I think as far as this writer is concerned, unfortunately, he has been irresponsible with his freedom of speech. Salman Rushdie or indeed any writer who abuses the prophet, or indeed any prophet, under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. It's got to be seen as a deterrent, so that other people should not commit the same mistake again."

"I'm very sad that this seems to be the No. 1 question people want to discuss. I had nothing to do with the issue other than what the media created. I was innocently drawn into the whole controversy. So, after many years, I'm glad at least now that I have been given the opportunity to explain to the public and fans my side of the story in my own words. At a lecture, back in 1989, I was asked a question about blasphemy according to Islamic Law, I simply repeated the legal view according to my limited knowledge of the Scriptural texts, based directly on historical commentaries of the Qur'an. The next day the newspaper headlines read, "Cat Says, Kill Rushdie." I was abhorred, but what could I do? I was a new Muslim. If you ask a Bible student to quote the legal punishment of a person who commits blasphemy in the Bible, he would be dishonest if he didn't mention Leviticus 24:16."

"I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attacks, it must be stated that no right thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action: the Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims at this sorrowful moment."

"We understand the anger, the anguish and suffering which this act of international terrorism has created amongst people. What we are worried about is the impact of the wrong kind of response to it. … We believe that the civilised world is a multicultural, multi-religious world. That is the type of message we want to get across. … I think there are many who are Muslims and non-Muslims, who are not warmongers but peace makers and want this world to be a better place. We believed the unison of the voices of so many people standing together against international terrorism is something to be valued and something to be built upon."

"I wanted a break. I had been on the road more or less since I was 18, you know? And I hadn't known any other life, other than, you know, hotel rooms and concerts and records and studios and press conferences. … and to me, here was a chance to jump off that kind of wagon and see life for real. You know, actually my last album was called Back to Earth. So that was the meaning of it. I wanted to join the human race again. I didn't want to be a star. I didn't want to continue with that thing, because so much illusion and non-reality is connected to it. I wanted to be real. And so I — I kind of — I found an opportunity. And the actual point about music was — the imam who I met and who I first embraced Islam with in London's Central Mosque, he actually told me to continue making records."

"It seems to be the easiest thing in the world these days to make scurrilous accusations against Muslims, and in my case it directly impacts on my relief work and damages my reputation as an artist. The harm done is often difficult to repair."

"The last place I wanted to return to was the music business. But it's the people and the cause that matter and right now there's an important need, which is bridge-building. I wanted to support the cause of humanity, because that's what I always sang about. Music can be healing, and with my history and my knowledge of both sides of what looks like a gigantic divide in the world, I feel I can point a way forward to our common humanity again. It's a big step for me but it's a natural step. I don't feel at all irked by the responsibility — I feel inspired."

"I wrote a song called "Father & Son" about the son running off to do his own thing. Now the story is about my son coming back and bringing a guitar into the house. A couple of years ago, one morning after prayers, his guitar was lying around. I picked it up and my fingers knew exactly where to go. I'd written some words and when I put them to music, it moved me and I realized I could have another job to do. Things just grew from there."

"I had to learn my faith and look after my family, and I had to make priorities. But now I've done it all and there's a little space for me to fill in the universe of music again."

"A lot of people would have loved me to keep singing … You come to a point where you have sung, more or less … your whole repertoire and you want to get down to the job of living. You know, up until that point, I hadn't had a life. I'd been searching, been on the road."

"I was a sitting target, in a way, for anybody who wanted to make some kind of headline. … I certainly never supported the Fatwa, but when I was asked about … the actual principle of blasphemy and capital punishment, well, like the Bible, I said, "You know, yeah, it's there, it's in the Koran." And I couldn't deny that."

"A big turning point happened when my son brought back a guitar into the house — You know, 'cause I'd given all those guitars away to charity — way back in 1979 and hadn't really touched the instrument, you know, for like two decades. … So then one day … when everybody's asleep and nobody's watching, I pick it up — and lo and behold, I still know where to put my fingers and out comes this music. I said, "Maybe I've got another job to do." And in this time and period it's probably the best thing I can do because lecturing, politics, God, I've got nothing to do with that. I want to just get heart-to-heart, make sure people understand some of the real subtle beauties of what I've discovered."

"Here's a chance, I think, for us to kind of remind ourselves, of those things we all commonly enjoy and love and share, try to get back together. You know, singing out for a more peaceful world today, I think, can only do good. … I do believe that … a lot of Muslims have yet to learn, you know, the incredible great history and contribution of Islamic civilization — and its become very, if you like, in some way puritanical — that puritanical approach will become narrower and narrower and even become more fragmented. Its that vast middle ground where people actually live, you know, that we have to reclaim; and in that area, everybody should be able to live together. And I don't think that God sent us prophets and books to fight about these books and these prophets. But they were telling us, actually, how to live together. If we ignore those teachings — whichever faith you belong, you profess, then I think we'll be finding ourselves in an even deeper mess."

"I never called for the death of Salman Rushdie; nor backed the Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini — and still don’t. The book itself destroyed the harmony between peoples and created an unnecessary international crisis. When asked about my opinion regarding blasphemy, I could not tell a lie and confirmed that — like both the Torah and the Gospel — the Qur’an considers it, without repentance, as a capital offense. The Bible is full of similar harsh laws if you’re looking for them. However, the application of such Biblical and Qur’anic injunctions is not to be outside of due process of law, in a place or land where such law is accepted and applied by the society as a whole."

"In 1989, during the heat and height of the Satanic Verses controversy, I was silly enough to accept appearing on a program called Hypotheticals which posed imaginary scenarios by a well-versed (what if…?) barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC. I foolishly made light of certain provocative questions. When asked what I’d do if Salman Rushdie entered a restaurant in which I was eating, I said, “I would probably call up Ayatollah Khomeini”; and, rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author, I jokingly said I would have preferred that it'd be the “real thing”. Criticize me for my bad taste, in hindsight, I agree. But these comments were part of a well-known British national trait; a touch of dry humor on my part. Just watch British comedy programs like "Have I Got News For You" or “Extras”, they are full of occasionally grotesque and sardonic jokes if you want them! … Certainly I regret giving those sorts of responses now. However, it must be noted that the final edit of the program was made to look extremely serious; hardly any laughs were left in and much common sense was savagely cut out. Most of the Muslim participants in the program wrote in and complained about the narrow and selective use of their comments, surreptitiously selected out of the 3-hour long recording of the debate. But the edit was not in our hands. Balanced arguments were cut out and the most sensational quotes, preserved."

""Peace Train" is a song I wrote, the message of which continues to breeze thunderously through the hearts of millions. There is a powerful need for people to feel that gust of hope rise up again. As a member of humanity and as a Muslim, this is my contribution to the call for a peaceful solution."

"Life is a journey, you know; and a lot of journeys, you go out, you come back."

"I love my dog as much as I love you But you may fade, my dog will always come through."

"The first cut is the deepest, Baby I know — The first cut is the deepest 'Cause when it comes to being lucky, she's cursed When it comes to lovin' me, she's worst But when it comes to being loved, she's first That's how I know The first cut is the deepest."

"My Lady D'Arbanville, why do you sleep so still? I'll wake you tomorrow, and you will be my fill, Yes, you will be my fill"

"Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry? Will you tell us when to live; will you tell us when to die? I know we've come a long way, We're changing day to day, But tell me, where do the children play?"

"I’m looking for a hard-headed woman, One who will make me do my best, And if I find my hard-headed woman, I know the rest of my life will be blessed"

"I know many fine feathered friends But their friendliness depends on how you do They know many sure fired ways, To find out the one who pays And how you do"

"Now that I've lost everything to you You say you wanna start something new And it's breakin' my heart you're leaving Baby, I'm grieving"

"Baby, I love you But if you wanna leave, take good care I hope you make a lot of nice friends out there But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world It's hard to get by just upon a smile Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world I'll always remember you like a child"

"Lord, my body has been a good friend But I won't need it when I reach the end Miles from nowhere, Guess I'll take my time Oh yeah, to reach there"

"I love everything So don't it make you feel sad 'cause I'll drink to you, my baby I'll think to that, I'll think to that"

"I don’t want to work away Doing just what they all say"

"Longer boats are coming to win us Hold on to the shore, or — They’ll be taking the key from the door"

"I built my house from barley rice Green pepper walls and water ice – And everything emptying into White"

"So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out There’s so much left to know, and I’m on the road to find out."

"Then I found my head one day when I wasn’t even trying And here I have to say, ‘cause there is no use in lying, lying Yes the answer lies within, so why not take a look now? Kick out the devil’s sin, pick up, pick up a good book now."

"It’s not time to make a change, Just relax, take it easy You’re still young, that’s your fault, There’s so much you have to know. Find a girl, settle down, If you want you can marry Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy"

"But take your time, think a lot, Why, think of everything you’ve got For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not"

"It’s always been the same, same old story. From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen Now there’s a way and I know that I have to go — away"

"All the times that I’ve cried, keeping all the things I knew inside, It’s hard, but it’s harder to ignore it"

"Bring tea for the Tillerman, Steak for the sun, Wine for the women who made the rain come, Seagulls sing your hearts away ‘Cause while the sinners sin, the children play"

"I listen to the wind To the wind of my soul Where I’ll end up well I think, Only God really knows"

"Ruby my love, You’ll be my love"

"If I laugh just a little bit Maybe I can forget the chance That I didn’t have to know you And live in peace, in peace"

"Don't you feel a change a coming From another side of time, Breaking down the walls of silence, Lifting shadows from your mind."

"How can I tell you that I love you, I love you But I can’t think of right words to say."

"If I make a mark in time, I can’t say the mark is mine I’m only the underline of the word Yes, I’m like him; just like you, I can’t tell you what to do Like everybody else I’m searching through What I’ve heard"

"And if I ever lose my hands, Lose my power, lose my land. Oh, if I ever lose my hands, Ooh, I won't have to work no more.And if I ever lose my eyes, If my colors all run dry. Yes, if I ever lose my eyes, Ooh, I won't have to cry no more.Yes, I'm bein' followed by a moon shadow, Moon shadow, moon shadow. Leapin' and hoppin' on a moon shadow, Moon shadow, moon shadow."

"Now I've been happy lately Thinking about the good things to come And I believe it could be Something good has begun. Oh, I've been smiling lately Dreaming about the world as one And I believe it could be Someday it's going to come."

"Now I've been crying lately, Thinking about the world as it is. Why must we go on hating? Why can't we live in bliss?"

"Now come and join the living, its not so far from you And its getting nearer, soon it will all be true Oh peace train sounding louder"

"Oh I’m on my way, I know I am, Somewhere not so far from here All I know is all I feel right now, I feel the power growing in my hair Sitting on my own not by myself, Everybody’s here with me I don’t need to touch your face to know, And I don’t need to use my eyes to see"

"Oh I’m on my way I know I am, But times there were when I thought not Bleeding half my soul in bad company, I thank the moon I had the strength to stop"

"Now I’m not making love to anyone’s wishes, Only for that light I see ‘Cause when I’m dead and lowered low in my grave, That’s gonna be the only thing that’s left of me"

"As years went by the boy grew high And the village looked on in awe They’d never seen anything like The boy with the moon and star before And people would ride from far and wide just to seek the word he spread "I'll tell you everything I've learned," And "Love", is all he said."

"She moves like and angel And seven evening stars Dance through the window Of her universal house"

"Her breath a warm fire In every lovers heart A mistress to magicians And a dancer to the gods"

"Her clothes are made of rainbows And twenty thousand tears Shine through the spaces Of her golden ochre hair"

"Sing a song of love and truth We’ll soon remember if you do When all things were tall And our friends were small And the world was new"

"Oh I can’t keep it in; I can’t keep it in, I’ve gotta let it out I’ve got to show the world; world’s got to see, See all the love; love that’s in me"

"Well I rode a while, for a mile or so Down the road to the 18th Avenue And the people I saw were the people I know And they all came down to take a view"

"O caritas, O caritas nobis semper sit amor mos perituri mortem salutamus — ah, ah sola resurgit vita"

"Give me time forever here in my time"

"Underneath her kiss I was so unguarded Every bottle’s empty now and all those dreams are gone Ah, but the song carries on … so holy"

"All those days are frozen now and all those scars are gone Ah, but the song carries on … so holy"

"Where’s it leading to, freedom at what cost? People needing more and more and it’s all getting lost"

"Yesterday I was on the edge Hoping everything was going to work itself out A good honest man doing the work of God Trying to make things better for Him A lover of life in a school for fools Trying to find another way to survive"

"I said, ‘Put back your heart, and sing, sing While you know you’re still living.’ Sing, sing, sing, while you know there’s still – New Music, new Music, new Music Sweet Music can lighten us Can brighten the world – can save us"

"Oh very young, What will you leave us this time? There’ll never be a better chance to change your mind. And if you want this world to see better days, Will you carry the words of love with you? Will you ride the great white bird into heaven? And though you want them to last forever, You know they never will — you know they never will. And the goodbye makes the journey harder still."

"Sun is the reason And the world it will bloom ‘Cause sun lights the sky And the sun lights the moon"

"They crossed the wood and hanged him A long time ago They still misunderstand him Those who don’t know And in the evening his love will lead the blind In every secret corner there in your mind"

"I love, I love, I’m ready to love — yes"

"And if my mind breaks up In all so many ways I know the meaning of The words, “I love you”"

"I’ve, I’ve had it enough All those lonely rooms And blank faces Had it enough And I want you, I want you no more"

"Come the morning I’ll be far from here Slowly rising in another sphere"

"Dark and empty was the place to which I’d come Cold and silent was the house my name was on Nine rooms — and a tomb in every one"

"Novim's Nightmare"

"This stranger had the key To any door he wished — with his eyes, I say What kind of majiks, of majiks? What kind of man — Can make me turn and see the way I really am?"

"One is the ever kindling star King of the immortal spark In heaven’s eye"

"Don’t you remember the days Of the old schoolyard When we had imaginings and we had All kinds of things and we laughed And needed love … yes, I do Oh and I remember you"

"I never wanted to be a star, I never wanted to travel far I only wanted a little bit of love So I could put a little love in my heart"

"Well, if you want to sing out, sing out, And if you want to be free, be free. 'Cause there's a million things to be, You know that there are."

"Morning has broken, Like the first morning, Blackbird has spoken Like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them springing Fresh from the Word!"

"Then, in 1978, he turned his back on it all, embraced Islam and changed his name. For many of his long time fans, it was a baffling decision - why would a man who appeared to have it all throw it all away? Now, in a major interview for Radio 2, Yusuf Islam charts the long journey from pop stardom to religious enlightenment and reveals the reasons behind his decision."

"Yes, Martha Stewart is going to jail and Cat Stevens is being deported. Man, I feel so much safer now."

"A flight from London carrying the artist we all used to know as Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangor, Maine after his name showed up on a terrorist no-fly list. I tell you, it's a real success story in the war on terror. You know, we finally got the guy that wrote "Peace Train.""

"For many years, Yusuf Islam has been pretending he didn’t say the things he said in 1989, when he enthusiastically supported the Iranian terrorist edict against me and others. However, his words are on the record, in print interviews and on television programs.… I’m afraid Cat Stevens got off the peace train a long time ago."

"I see the town Where we were born, I see the place We were raised, I see all the things you wanted That I never gave. I see sadness, I see sorrow, I see pain in your face, But I just can't see A stranger in my place."

"I can see now Where you might grow tired of dreams That don't come true, I can see where I have fallen short Of the things I promised you. I can see now through my tear filled eyes no love on your face, I must get used to seein' strangers in my place."

"You touched my soul with your beautiful song You even had me singin' along right with you, you said "I need you", then you changed the words and added harmony Then you sang the song you had written for me to someone new Oh, but nobody sings a love song quite like you do Oh, and nobody else can make me sing along Nobody else can make me feel things are right When I know they're wrong, Nobody sings a love song quite like you."

"Sing your song sweet music man, I believe in you."

"Something's got a hold on me It's cheap but it ain' free Love or somethin like it's got a hold on me."

"Right when a man's, doin all that he planned And he thinks he's got just what he needs Life will deliver, a shot that will shiver him Drivin him down to his knees Make him start giving, living, livin' again. Well it's your mind, that tricks you in believin' everytime Love will turn you around, turn you around Well it's your heart, that talks you into stayin' where you are Love will turn you around, turn you around."

"When you're not here by my side There is nothing in this world for me. I guess I'm crazy Crazy for you can't you see."

"If you wanna find gold Go looking in the mountains If you wanna find silver Go digging in stones If you wanna find heaven Go reading in the Bible If you wanna find love Go looking at home."

"A smart man isn't necessarily one who knows all the answers, but knows where to find them."

"You never know how much you love somebody until they’re gone. I’ve had so many wonderful years and wonderful times with my friend Kenny, but above all the music and the success I loved him as a wonderful man and a true friend."

"When people who are songwriters say 'That's my property and if you give it away for free then I'll lose my incentive,' then, well, good riddance."

"I think that the idea of straight edge, the song that I wrote, and the way people have related it it, there's some people who have abused it, they've allowed their fundamentalism to interfere with the real message, which in my mind, was that people should be allowed to live their lives the way they want to."

"An unlocked door means that, occasionally, you might get a devil come in, but a locked door means you have thousands of angels just walk by."

"hurts I have are my fault but I'm sure gonna learn from it and hopefully anyone reading this will too. the lesson: stay aware on a bicycle and look up the road in front of you at all times to make sure you can deal w/what's coming and the condition of the road you're gonna be rolling down!"

"Navy housing is like tract homes. … All the houses look the same. Everybody's pop was the same rank. There's a lot of negative to the military — like, most of it. But one good thing was I lived with all kinds of people, as far as ethnic background or whatever. Because the navy was integrated. That was kind of neat. And with everybody's pop being chiefs, you could see that no one was above or below anyone else. You know how neighborhoods get all caught up in different things? Well, in the military you're not like that. You're all together. So I will say that was one positive thing that came out of it."

"The 'minute' meant more like minute … Like we were small compared to a big arena rock band. And the other reason for the name — I had a bunch of names on a paper, and D. Boon picked that one. He liked it because there was some right-wing group who used the name. We thought, we'll call ourselves the same thing — there goes their power! It'll dilute it and confuse things."

"What's obvious to me isn't always obvious to other people."

"If it's some style, especially some shrink-wrapped thing hanging on a wall at Toys 'R' Us, then it won't live, it won't be dynamic … It becomes exactly what the marketing people want — a genre, something to make their job easier. But if it's something like, "Everybody's telling me the wall's over there, but I'm going to push against it and see if it's really there" — to me, that's what punk is. An idealistic attitude."

"This entire opus is respectfully dedicated to all those who have loved unconditionally only to have their hearts unanaesthetically ripped out: Base not your joy on the deeds of others, for what is given can be taken away. No hope = No fear."

"Some people say I'm a pussy. I say, you are what you eat."

"If I worked in a bank as a teller, there wouldn't be girls lined up outside of where I work when I'm done."

"This next song is called 'Wolf Moon' [crowd starts to cheer]. Wait with cheering until you hear what the song's about. It's about a guy who turns into a werewolf when he engages in oral sex with a menstruating woman [crowd cheers even louder, and Steele spreads out his arms]. You wanna call me a pussy? You are what you eat."

"I left the stage because I thought I had to shit, but then I lost the feeling."

"Hello, children of the Nazis!"

"It’s a funny thing, when you talk to God, you’re religious, but when he talks to you, you’re a psychopath."

"We have the pool Ah - No that's cruel Why do you take me for A fool? Try the rails It's just not me No No No No - Siree"

"What makes you wander far Don't know who you are Now if the vibe is right I'll go out tonight"

"We're only making plans for Nigel He has his future in a British steel We're only making plans for Nigel Nigel's whole future is as good as sealed"

"Generals and Majors ah ah They're never too far away from men who made the grade out in a world of their own They'll never come down until the battle's lost or made"

"You caught mum chasing dad with a knife You ran away to escape from the fights Now you're lost in a maze of neon light And she's worried, he's worried, she's worried, oh..."

"Can't you see Love and affection When it's put In your direction Wrapped in your mysterious wonderland"

"Oh Lord deliver us from the elements We at your mercy and your reverence Oh Lord deliver us from the elements We've no defence we are impotent"

"England can never repay you You gave your life to be buried alongside The place you loved The sermons attended when you were young Still echo round these churchyard walls"

"Yes, I weeping, a teardrop attack I give emotion at the drop of a hat When I remember days at school I remember many things, but Most of all, I remember the sun"

"Shocked me too the things we used to do on grass It would shock you too the things we used to do on grass Grass, grass. Things we did on grass"

"The scapegoat blood spilled Spittled and grilled it crackled and spat And children grew fat on the meat Change must be earnt"

"Yes I'm talking about this war dance A patriotic romance And I know all you poets Have seen it all before About the stirring of those young hearts Back in the first world war"

"Pour ourselves a glass of stout And let our Rael Brook shirts hang out Nothing makes us more content To let us wallow in a bit of nonsense"

"Some people say That I am out of my tree Or just a strawberry fool Someday they'll see Till then I'll blow you a raspberry 'Cos apples and pears are me"

"Just like you I am a wanderer Wandering, wondering Outrunning all my previous lives So cleave to me just like a tiny storm A raining and a thundering Coming out of clear blue skies - "All I Know""

"There were many guests at the table Misfortune, jealousy, and sloth Acting fine, drink the wine Spill it on the tablecloth - "Feast""

"And she beckons to you with her fingers and lies She says: can't you slice the price of your paradise. ~ A Month of Sundays"

"Like a womb, the night was all around ~ Disappear"

"Ugliness you have to know, beauty you can't teach ~ Disappear"

"You stare down at some crowd from your trapeze And when you fell they fell down on their knees And when you broke they scrambled for a piece And when you spoke I felt their anger freeze. ~ Metropolis"

"I paid eighty dollars for this wedding ring, I couldn't take it off if I tried... ~ Hotel Womb"

"She put her foot down on the oscillation pedal, she was a transdimensional speeder... ~ Terra Nova Cain"

"The pines smell sweet in the frozen air, and their silhoutte's just fading there, the wolves crouch close, against the snow but where we're running I don't know, In villages and soft sad towns the candles sway as night comes down, cold bones creak and strange beasts cry, watching shadows in the sky... All I have, all I need, all I got.....is providence. ~ Providence"

"On this very spot a great city once stood, It oozed with evil but it felt so good... ~ City"

"It's never as good as I hoped or as bad as I feared ~ Into My Hands"

"In the space between our houses some bones have been discovered but our procession lurches on as if we have recovered... ~ Destination"

"Great cities, or the endless beautiful plains stretched out before his jaded gaze and disappeared into the nothingness of his feeling. ~ Fall in Love"

"Follow her down to worship some god Who never speaks to me, I wonder if that's odd Then he says you're never listening. ~ Lost"

"The universe is female Eluding the science of men You sway and you swagger with your neat little dagger You're gonna blow it again .... I'll prove her existence in everything The soul of her rivers and stones Her acquiescence in everything Her essence, her presence, her bones. ~ Essence"

"The world keeps spinning, people keep sinning all the rest is just bullshit. ~ Authority"

"You can't be a lover if you want to keep on using What are you using that's stronger than the love Sometimes I'm knocked out by the damage that you're doing Knocked out, locked out, push comes to shove Listen to the wind tearing at the windows Watching how the white moon melts into the cloud Important little tyrants, impotent little pharaohs Men/man of sorrows lost into the crowd ~ Richochet"

"Sometimes I wander under prehistoric skys Here she comes with a penetrating stare cold desert stars feel and sparkle like frost, they are so lost his seed of adulation is your butter and your bread, it's an exquisite corpse and its lips are red If you're alone and you're feeling blue, everyone in Persia probably feels like you do. ~ Lost"

"Why are those buildings swaying like trees? ~ Hotel Womb"

"Close to you, hear all you say Even though you're continents away ~ It Doesn't Change"

"I've got a nickname for you, I call you weakness I get a little strength out too, or is it meekness ~ Paradox"

"Everything is going wrong All my songs are coming true ~ Mistress"

"Inside the car sat a sulky blonde And on her lap the road went on and on As she dresses I look to the ground Perhaps I know where the place can be found, and on ~ The Night is Very Soft"

"Beyond that void is a place Where figments from bad dreams are banished Childhood nightmares all come seeking And adult logic nearly vanished ~ Chaos"

"Our instruments have no way of measuring this feeling Had ever got below the floor Or penetrate the ceiling ~ Destination"

"So now we're cruisin' down this shuddering highway with the dead sun shining on my back. ~ Myrrh"

"Loving, we've been loving, but sometimes hate is better You can't keep out the killers with love, man Hating, we've been hating, but only love can heal up the hate ~ Nightfriends"

"I’m an insomniac, my mind works the night shift."

"Whenever you say that homophobia is stupid, you just get called gay."

"When I said that I make out with dudes, there was a slight sense of sexual rebellion in that. And I probably even made it a bigger deal than it was."

"I have a bit of a consummate victim in my head. That’s who I identify with throughout history. When I was 10 I would draw black eyes on myself because I thought it was cool. You’re so into people who are tragic. You want to be that so badly. But you probably aren’t really the tragic genius that you think you are."

"Our culture bombards us with this idea that you’re not that, and if you are that, there’s something wrong with you, and then we’re going to call you that, and then it’s an insult. There is a sense of self-empowerment or recapturing who you are by people calling you ‘fag,’ and being like, ‘Yeah, I am a fag.’ Even though you’re not. What does somebody respond? That dude has nothing to say about that again."

"Being ambiguously flamboyant really does help. I’ve had so many people come up to me and be like, ‘I felt OK to come out of the closet after you said this.’ When someone says that to me -- it’s not an event I’ve ever been through, so I don’t know what to compare it to. I don’t think I even understand how important that is to someone’s life."

"Q: X-ray vision or bionic hearing? A: It's easy to hear people talking shit. I'd rather check out Patrick in his boxers with little heart prints on 'em. So vision I guess."

"Q: Will Fall Out Boy ever become Fall Out Man? A: The chest hair is in the mail. So hopefully we will in four to six weeks. depending on shipping."

"I had an upright — it took me years and years to get enough bread to get it... I'm from Florida, so one morning I woke up, go in the corner and the bass is in a hundred pieces, cause the humidity is so bad, I mean, the upright just blew up. I said forget it, man, I can't afford this any more. So I went out, got a knife and took all the frets out of my Fender. That was it."

"Give me a gig!"

"I was playing drums, and I had broken my wrist very bad playing football, and the bass player in the band... he wanted to split. So I just went to the bass; I went from Drums over to Bass. That was it. I was playing the bass within a week."

"I took the frets out of my bass after I was getting into jazz a lot and I wanted to have that upright sound."

"I never practiced a fretless ever, because the strings eat the neck up. So I would only play it on gigs."

"Saying Pastorius is the greatest jazz-based bassist of all time would not be a stretch. Unfortunately, Pastorius' off-stage demons seemed to get in the way of sustaining that greatness. In addition to his drug addiction, Pastorius dealt with bipolar disorder and harbored a nasty temper. Pastorius, who collaborated with the likes of Joni Mitchell and Ian Hunter, died in 1987 at 35 due to injuries suffered in a bar fight, ending a celebrated musical career where his innovative funk harmonies on the electric bass are still an influence on bassists to this day."

"A fiery and muscular player, Jaco Pastorius, who passed away in 1987 at the age of 35, remains one of the most influential electric bassists in jazz. His 1975 self-titled debut album is hailed by some as the best jazz bass album ever; it should be required listening for any aspiring bass player, especially his interpretation of Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee," or his harmonic work on "Continuum" and "Portrait of Tracy." Pastorius used to say he was the greatest bass player in the world, and dude could back it up with his virtuosic abilities."

"I think I've kind of got the best position. I get all the benefits of being in one of the biggest bands in the world and have a certain anonymity as well. So I'm perfectly happy with the situation. source"

"I'm in love with a lot of things. Some of those things love me back. And some of them don't--and one of them is Radiohead."

"I don't concentrate on technical things like where a microphone is placed and things like that. As a producer, I try to keep the initial feeling from when I first heard a song and make sure we do what were initially aiming for. source"

"Magne Furuholmen is a very dear friend of mine. A-ha are a classic pop band and they've got some brilliant songs. I'd say 'The Living Daylights' was one of my favourite Bond tunes: regardless of it being a Bond song, it stands alone as a great piece of music. source"

"I’m not famous, only Chris (Martin) is famous. Chris can’t walk around in Bangkok, he’ll get mobbed! But I can walk anywhere and no one would give a shit. [laughs] But I like it this way, I don’t want any attention in that kind of way, I like to stay home and being able to go anywhere, can go shopping anywhere, something like that. Well, I’m in a really famous band but I’m just not famous, you know what I mean? And I think that’s perfect. source"

"We have very similar brains. But they come out in different personalities."

"Working at Perfekt, Got me down on my knees. Success to failure, Just a matter of degrees. Working at Perfekt, Got me down on my knees..."

"Cinderella man, Doing what you can, They can't understand what it means Cinderella man, Hang on to your plans, Try as they might, they cannot steal your dreams"

"For me, how I feel about what I wrote down turns into a song."

"I love to write. It's my first love."

"Music is all about wanting to be better at it."

"Once I have lyrics, being able to shape them around a song is nothing new for me, I've been doing that for 25 years. The soul searching part of it, the spontaneous part of it, that was, and remains, a really terrific process."

"Regardless of what you want to say about KISS, musically or otherwise, there was no harder-working band than KISS. And there was no band more determined to put on a spectacular show and give people their money's worth than KISS. That was a great thing to see as an opening act. We were so impressionable, and we were so green...they were very good to us. Those guys liked to have a good time!"

"There is nothing he can’t do, with his bass playing veering from the subtle, via the atmospheric, to an all-out riff storm. That doesn’t mean that he shows off, though: his playing is often a masterclass in economy and restraint. Even his bass gear is relatively reductive these days, with a signature Fender Jazz and a Tech21 SansAmp with this name on it going into an Orange amp."

"Rush's greatness was always the sum of its individually talented three parts. Yet, Lee seemed to be the consistent face of the band. In fact, many pray to the altar of Rush, specifically Lee. While best known for his signature countertenor vocals, Lee always mastered the strings on his bass and continues to do so in life after Rush. He was exceptional in incorporating high treble to counter Alex Lifeson’s guitar, making a more fluid unity between the two instruments. Bass gods Cliff Burton and Steve Harris are just two of the countless musicians who consider Lee a major influence on their successful careers."

"I'm not vicious really. I consider myself kind-hearted. I love my mum."

"I'll probably die by the time I reach 25. But I'll have lived the way I wanted to."

"Well, you know, like, I don't really give a fuck what the general public think."

"American audiences are just the same as anybody else. Except a bit more boring."

"The band broke up because I couldn't bear Rotten anymore because he was an embarrassment with his silly hats and his, like, shabby, dirty, nasty looking appearance."

"You just pick a chord, go twang, and you've got music."

"I've met the man in the street, and he's a cxxt."

"We had a death pact. I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me next to my baby in my leather jacket, jeans and motor cycle boots. Goodbye."

"All I did was cash in on the fact that I'm good-looking and I have a good figure and girls like me."

"I'm not chic, I could never be chic. I was in it from its inception."

"Like Johnny Gonzales said, "I wanna live till I die"."

"Everybody wanted to be with Sid, but unfortunately he came with Nancy. She was unbelievably thick-skinned, one of the most unlikable people I've met. Everybody could see through her, except Sid."

"As soon as (Sid) realised how much everyone hated Nancy, man, he stuck to her like a stamp to a letter. That´s why he was called "Sid": he hated the name Sid, so everyone called him Sid. That´s what that whole scene was about. But when we got fucked up, he got very violent actually. He was shooting speed before he met Nancy, and when she got him into dope it was a very easy switch to make; then it was all over for him. He`d never been with a woman before, where she had that kind of control over him... Nancy was an opportunist. I'm not even going to say whether I liked her or not, but she had a negative effect on Sid and he didn't need that."

"You can be a jazz player and be respected by musicians, but the rest of the world doesn’t care. [...] We’re going to play a game: name a jazz player that means something."

"We can't be The Beatles. I can't shine their shoes. I can't sing as well as Paul or John. I can't write those kind of songs. But they would die in my armour and my eight-inch platform heels, and Paul can't spit fire, so there you have it."

"Elvis is the king of rock and roll, who made white kids shake there shackle."

"Being a Jew, you realize your strongest weapon is your mind."

"I think Prince was heads, hands and feet about all the rest of them, I thought he left (Michael) Jackson in the dust. Prince was way beyond that. But how pathetic that he killed himself. Don't kid yourself, that's what he did. Slowly, I'll grant you … but that's what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death."

"The most important thing in life is to be a selfish asshole. Do what you want, piss off everyone and stop hanging with the guys because they're not going to get you money or sex."

""Earth has never been in better shape…I know — climate change and a polarised political thing — but there are no more world wars. I mean, imagine what London looked like 60 years ago. This is the best of times. Unemployment in the United States is the lowest it’s been in 50 years — 5-0…More people are working. More people are making more money. Unions are more powerful." (2019)"

"My mother is probably the wisest person I've ever known. She's not schooled, she's not well read. But she has a philosophy of life that makes well-read people seem like morons."

"My skin is more beautiful than yours. I would be quite more popular in jail if I so chose."

"The notion is that if you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs."

"You know why I'm pulling your leg? Because I can't touch it from where I am."

"You can't argue with facts and figures. Either people want it, in which case they pay for it, or it's two guys sitting around at the Plaza having a discussion, which means nothing. I mean, Titanic. I wasn't crazy about the movie. But you know what? I'm gonna shut up, because the people have spoken. End of story!"

"KISS is the number-one American band in gold-record sales. In the world, only the Beatles and the Stones are ahead of us. Every other band should be wiping my ass. The line forms over there to the left."

"Prostitute yourself. As far as I'm concerned, that's even braver than waiting for the public to catch on."

"Anybody who picks up a guitar and tells you that there's some inner message that they're trying to convey . . . it's nonsense. They're not being honest. The reason they're doing this is they wanna get lots of chicks and they don't want to work for a living."

"People say, "I want to get laid a lot and make lots of money." That's not the right order."

"A whore, in my estimation, has more credibility than a wife, and I'll tell you why. A wife is supposed to marry you for love. A whore is not there for love, she's there to service you. Now, the difference between them is a whore, before she does her work, will tell you exactly what it is. She'll tell you, "Blow job? This'll cost you seventy-five dollars. This is not love, and after I'm done I never want to see you again." Full disclosure is what they call it in court. A wife will tell you shit. A wife will tell you nothing. She's about to marry you. If you get divorced, she's going to take 50 percent of your gross pretax dollars and try to get more. Now, before you get married, if you dare bring up the notion, "By the way, let's just be completely honest with each other, what happens if we break up?" she will cry and tell you, "That's so unromantic." You know who's more credible? The whore."

""You can't buy love with money." Only a poor person says that."

"You shall not covet thy neighbor's wife? Well, how about if she goddamn covets me? What do you think about that?"

"“I think I know it all, relatively speaking.”"

"My mother was 14 when she was in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. My mother’s alive and well, but only because of America. Without America’s military, the world would be in deep… fill-in-the-blank. I’m forever grateful for that."

"I’ve known Donald (Trump) for a few decades, and what you can say without argument is that he’s a good father. His kids have turned out really well. There’s nothing bad you can say about that."

"Like any large organization, there are going to be some bad people. Many people go to church; not every priest is a good guy. But you . Wounded Warrior is an important organization, and all the various vet groups are important because, shamefully, we don’t have an amendment to the Constitution that guarantees if you volunteer to serve your country, and risk life and limb, that you’re even going to get a job, so that you can feed your family. It’s pathetic. ‘Hey, thanks a lot for risking your life, and you’ve been wounded. Good luck out there!’ The men and women of our military may not expect to get rich and famous, but at least give them a job for God’s sake, so they can feed their family!"

"The best philanthropy is anonymous charity. When you’re doing it for the right reasons, and not to tell everyone how nice you are. That’s self-aggrandizement. That’s also OK: if you want credit, that’s OK. But the higher giving is anonymous giving."

"…now that I'm really pursuing being a jazz trumpet player. I’m working really hard on it every day, every day, and it's difficult, you know, and I'm I'm a student… I’m humbled. I am humbled…as I study this craft. The other day I was… I was in New York and I was playing my record for a group of people including a bunch of really good jazz musicians who were there, and I'm kind of insecure around jazz musicians you know, I'm like, I'm not that good, you know, and I was talking to my friend John Lurie and … I said I hope they they weren't like looking down their nose at me, you know what I mean, and he's like “what the fuck are you talking about, you can play man, you're a player, you're a musician” and I realized I was like because of that kind of shit I felt when I was a kid around the jazz musicians, and I admired them so much, and I felt I went to this other kind of music. I've always felt so insecure about it, you know, and I realized… I don't need to… especially… when I went to go make my record and I was playing with these great jazz musicians and I… was insecure with them… I was like, "God, I'm hope… they're not just doing it for a check and they're going to look down on me and think, oh, “he's a no playing fucking rock dude. He doesn't really understand.” …But and it wasn't like that at all …they’re like “we're all climbing this mountain of music”… Where you are in the fucking mountain, you got something to offer that… They were all just wanting to and sincerely… realize my vision with me. Mhm. you know, in the most beautiful way…it moved me like, and I’m just now in my life …conquering … all.. those feelings of inadequacy as a musician, you know, and and just wanting to work and be as good as I can…I now I work more than ever, you know what I mean?"

"We're [the Red Hot Chili Peppers] jamming and that works really well. We don't talk much about songs or how songs should be constructed. We just start to play and see what happens, how they develop. We improvise a lot. We find a groove. We experiment and somehow it turns into music. The Koreans have influenced us a lot, through their loving attitude, evil dictatorship, and funky bass playing."

"The music industry, I've never been concerned with. I've been very fortunate that it has taken care of me. Like a baby being breast fed."

"I smell like vitamin C, rose-oil and old smelly socks."

"I love, I love, I love, killer whales, and I love mangos, and Iggy Pop too, I love Iggy Pop, and eating, getting up in the morning, and going swimming, and taking a good shit, and I love all of you too!"

"People that are uptight about the kiss on the magazine are the same people that are gonna be watching macho football players in tight pants wrestle around and slap each other on the butt and think it's the all russian macho thing to do."

"In Flea’s hands the Jazz Bass becomes both a rhythm and a lead instrument, a clean and a dirty one."

"[Flea is] one of the most versatile bassists around and willing to play with anybody, anywhere. Flea's played with the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Johnny Cash, and Tom Waits. Not to mention, he's also among rock's great characters and noted for his remarkable stage presence, clothed or not."

"I think of the Ramones when I think of music that can save your life, but I’m not so sure about a band like Fall Out Boy who appears to make music in vein or that, at least, doesn’t sound like something they would die for."

"I love the intimacy of small venues, I really do, I like that look that people have that they feel like they're special and they can hear and they can see the band as well."

"It's quite spiky, quite dramatic, theatrical rock 'n' roll really."

"I love dressing up. I’m from a huge African family and grew up in a really colorful place. The way I dress reflects my environment and wanting to take people into a fantasy world for half an hour."

"Arctic Monkeys are a great band, but bands like that sometimes spend a lot of time reminding people about the shitiness of reality. I don’t want to sing for half an hour, reminding people about how shit Sheffield is — unless it’s for one verse or a joke."

"We are able to speak for ourselves through our music rather than being defined and put into the spotlight in a very male kind of groomed way for an obviously predominantly male audience."

"When someone like Kurt Cobain or Jack White comes out, they didn’t go, “He sounds just like Muddy Waters,” did they? They just said, “He’s great, he sounds like him.” When women come out and men write about them, they tend to write about them in a way that other men can understand, which sometimes can seem a bit patronizing."

"We're just going to play the hell out of it until they can't take it anymore."

"What made a big difference was the open door policy we had. Anyone who wanted to come backstage could, and it was never a problem. I don't know whether other bands did that. It was good for us to meet people who had come to see the group and converse with them, ask them 'What's it like in your town? What, there are no clubs here? So what do you do?' It was about sharing information and it was good to know what was going on out there, and how people were dealing with their lives. And that spread right across the world."

"I've got one thing to say about being the bass player … I didn't want the role of being Entwhistle or Bill Wyman, stuck in the background. That's too depressing and if that was what I'd been offered with The Clash I would've turned it down. Maybe that's the nature of the job, or has been in the past; the bass player as the one that held the fort, so to speak, along with the drummer, letting every body else go lunatic. But, y'know — why can't we all be lunatics?"

"I never really cared about achieving commercial success. As soon as I was signed to a record company, I felt like I made it because I was able to quit my day job. To me, success was just not having to have a boss and not having a day job. So I’ve been living my own version of success since the early ’90s when I first got signed and I haven’t had a job since then. I’m pretty happy about that. When I did have a little bit of commercial success, it really didn’t suit my temperament at all. I’m a terrible public person. I’m happier where I am now."

"A lot of so-called Christian souls are not fine. People need to look inside themselves and look at the lives they’re leading and fix themselves before they try to fix other people."

"The most rabidly religious people are the most rabidly evil."

"I am only human, I am weak. I want his power inside of me. And I'm not talking about a piece of meat. I'm saying something really deep."

"I'm a goddess in your eyes, and I will never die. I was born of people's needs, and what they don't wanna believe. But I am a liar, that's the truth, go home and think it through. That's the harm in mystery, all you know is what you see.I got no idols."

"What a life, you wear it like propriety What a life, you do it like you really mean it What a life, I watch it like a scary movie What a life, what a life, what a life."

"Beauty can be sad. You're proof of that. When the damage is done, you're damaged goods. That's not to say it's not okay. I wouldn't have it any other way.A heart, a heart that hurts, is a heart, a heart that works."

"Reach inside carefully. Feel my psyche. Make it last. Put this moment under glass."

"Love is everywhere I'm not allowed. I feel he's been to hell, but he's near to heaven now. I need to see it. I can't not have it, so inscrutable, so beautiful."

"This can't be real I've never seen so much This must be a joke.I don't know how to feel I haven't earned it yet Everything fades so fast."

"Okay I gotta go Maybe I don't want to know There's too much truth in this room."

"How do you get up in the morning? Another wasted life it's so boring The system never failed you You failed yourself and all of your friends Now your heart is failing too A total system failure they pronounce you"

"I showed you how to touch a star I helped you forget who you are Baby, you can drive my car Over to the right side of the tracksYou pushed your greatest chance away But still I really want to sayI forgive you."

"I never needed this I never needed anyone I meant every word that I said It's true I wasn't talking to you And I'm sorry that I must go so soon Please forgive me for finding something real and pure and trueSomebody is waiting for me"

"I've been sleeping through my life Now I'm waking up And I want to stand in the sunshine I have never been ecstatic Had a flower but it never bloomed In the darkness of my wasted youth It was hiding in the shadows Learning to become invisible Uncover me"

"Impossible to love Is all that I know how to be But in my heart I keep repeating You didn't mean to hate meI still love my enemy."

"Can you take it when I break it give it back to the posers who fake it Suck the milk out of the lilacs we were so innocent you can't go back What the fuck it's a miracle I’m even here You're over me but I’m alive so what do i care Standing in the cement"

"There's a hole in the sky I stood and stared I feel it inside what isn't there The children are lost we can't find them anywhere Hole in the sky I'm crying still crying for you."

"Hole in the sky I'm coming I’m coming with you."

"In the dark, I like to read his mind But I'm frightened of the things I might find."

"When I tell him that Im falling in love Why does he say "Hush, hush, keep it down now. Voices carry"?"

"I try so hard not to get upset Because I know all the trouble Ill get Oh, he tells me tears are something to hide And something to fear And I try so hard to keep it inside So no one can hear."

"He wants me, but only part of the time. He wants me if he can keep me in line."

"I look in your eyes I realize what you've sold me is love in a vacuum. Love in a vacuum."

"Living on silence, Living by the book. You get it to a science Of living on one good look. So put out all the fires And blow away the smoke. I'm getting pretty tired Of living on hope."

"Coming up close Everything sounds like welcome home. Come home and oh, by the way, Don't you know that I could make a dream that's barely half-awake come true? I wanted to say — but anything I could have said I felt somehow that you already knew."

"There's always something that's smoldering somewhere I know it don't make a difference to you But oh! It sure made a difference to me You'll see me off in the distance, I hope At the other end At the other end of the telescope."

"I should've known It was coming down to this. I should've known You would betray me but without the kiss. I should've known The kind of set-up it is."

"I don't know how to break the news, but It's pretty clear you'll be asked to choose between What you lack and what you excuse In this tug of war You can't say that they didn't warn you Though you'd rather that they just ignore you Cause your devices are not working for you anymore What you want, you don't know You're with stupid now"

"Though you pay for the hands they're shaking The speeches and the mistakes they're making As they struggle with the undertaking Of simple thought What you want, you don't know You're with stupid now What you know, you don't want to know You're with stupid now."

"In our endeavor we are never seeing eye to eye; No guts to sever so forever may we wave goodbye. And you're always telling me that it's my turn to move, When I wonder what could make the needle jump the groove. I won't fall for the oldest trick in the book, So don't sit there and think you're off of the hook. By saying there is no use changing 'causeThat's just what you are. That's just what you are."

"Oh, for the sake of momentum I've allowed my fears to get larger than life. And it's brought me to my current agendum Whereupon I deny fulfillment has yet to arrive.And I know life is getting shorter, I can't bring myself to set the scene. Even when it's approaching torture, I've got my routine."

"Now that I've met you, Would you object to Never seeing each other again? 'Cause I can't afford to Climb aboard you. No one's got that much ego to spend.So don't work your stuff, Because I've got troubles enough. No, don't pick on me When one act of kindness could be Deathly, Deathly, Definitely."

"The sex you're trading up for What you hope is love Is just another thing that He'll be careless of. But though there are caveats galore, You've only got to love him more — And you do; You really do. Even when it's all too clear."

"You're sure There's a cure. And you have finally found it. You think One drink Will shrink you 'til you're underground And living down. But it's not going to stop. It's not going to stop. It's not going to stop 'Til you wise up."

"You look like a perfect fit For a girl in need of a tourniquet."

"You struck me dumb, Like radium Like Peter Pan, or Superman, You have come... to save me. Come on and save me... Why don't you save me? If you could save me, From the ranks of the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone, Except the freaks, Who suspect they could never love anyone, Except the freaks, Who could never love anyone."

"I can't do it, I can't conceive You're everything you're trying to make me believe 'Cause this show is too well designed Too well to be held with only me in mind And how, how am I different? How, how am I different?"

"I can't do it, and as for you Can you in good conscience even ask me to? 'Cause what do you care about the great divide As long as you come down on the winner's side?"

"They're all still on their honeymoon, Just read the dialogue balloon. Everyone loves you — Why should they not? And I'm the only one who knows That Disneyland's about to close. I don't suppose you'd give it a shot Knowing all that you've gotAre cigarettes and Red Vines. Just close your eyes, 'cause, baby — You never do know. And I'll be on the sidelines, With my hands tied, Watching the show."

"He's a serious mister Shake his hand and he'll twist your arm. With Monopoly money We'll be buying the funny farm. So I'll do flips, and get paid in chips From a diamond as big as the Ritz — Then I'm calling it quits."

"I'll tell you a secret I don't even know. Baby, there's something wrong with me Baby, there's something wrong with me Baby, there's something wrong with me That I can't see."

"Tell me why I feel so bad, honey Fighting left me plenty of money But didn't keep the promise of memory lapses Like a building that's been slated for blasting I'm the proof that nothing is lasting Counting to eleven as it collapses"

"You know it I know it Why don't you Just show it You got a lot of money but you can't afford the freeway"

"I thought my life would be different somehow I thought my life would be better by now But it's not, and I don't know where to turn"

"Little tornado You and the hurricane Close your eyes and go campaign Make it go faster Baby go faster Make it go twice the speed of you and me"

"When you’re a charmer people respond they can’t see the hidden agenda you got going on"

"When you’re a charmer the world applauds they don’t know that secretly charmers feel like they’re frauds When you’re a charmer you hate yourself a victim of sideshow hypnosis like everyone else."

"You lie so well I could never even tell what were facts in your artful rearranging But I came back for more and you laughed in my face and you rubbed it in cause I’m a Labrador and I run when the gun drops the dove again"

"When we first met I was glad to be your pet like a Lab I once had that we called Maisie but fetching sticks was the best I had for tricks you got bored you got mad then you got crazy"

"I could almost shed a tear but let’s shine in the time we have remaining you’re a tough old gal but a dog is just a pal and believe me, my dear, I’m not complaining"

"Everybody’s got their differences too bad here’s a circumstance in which the stakes are high everybody’s got their secrets out so sad go around the room and see who doesn’t cry Soon enough you’ll be free to write it off you don’t know enough to call a bluff and the one who does will never ever tell"

"Soon enough you can say we made it up just for fun I guess to make a mess cause what’s more fun than other people’s hell"

"You can tell By the laugh in the dark at the sound of the bell You can tell It's the nucleus burning inside of the cell…"

"A Beer A Day Keeps The Doctor Away."

"For those who just tuned in we're the Beatles!"

"Every Australian band wants to stick it to the Yankees."

"Maybe if I point to my brain it will work."

"Buddy Holly was the geekiest looking guy in the world, but he had some really rockin tunes."

"Fuck, you see some weird looking people around here."

"The drug issue is hard to separate from a class issue, an education issue, a wonky foreign policy issue, and a race issue. What I do know is, be it caffeine, alcohol, cocaine, or adrenaline, let's face it: people like to get high. From Starbucks to Budweiser to your own brain, everybody's a pusher these days. If I could substitute another drug to be consumed in the country as much as alcohol is, it would be helium from children's birthday party balloons. Try not laughing when someone sounds like a chipmunk!"

"I always looked at any instrument as just a tool, an expressive voice to write with. It even differs from guitar to guitar. Some guitars demand that you play them delicately and really respect the instrument, and some beg to be abused. Same with piano. I know with guitar, I'm intimate with it enough to know when I put my fingers here, it will sound like this. I prefer writing on piano because it's always a surprise."

"A lot of the songs have a duality about them; one part is totally sincere, and there's another part that is kind of smirking and making light of it all. Or there's a very dark streak about it."

"I like the material, which makes it easy to sort of delve into it, and then also I was too tired to be nervous. I was just happy. The anxiety, the anxious energy was not there, because I was too exhausted."

"I love the idea that something would be whimsical, and like "delightful", you know, but also disgusting — so I like this sort of, you know, a really gnarly guitar — really gross, disgusting guitar and then a — really a whimsical... — it's one of those things you can only describe in sort of awkward hand gestures and eye motions. Imagine!"

"I think anyone who is creative or self-aware in any way, there’s like a humility to it, or I should say a humiliation to it. But there’s also a self-delusion — the provisional ego, as my uncle would call it. The self-delusion is the thing that makes you go, oh you know what, all the music that I’ve ever loved in the world, I want to be a part of that — hey, listen to what I have to say, it’s really important, it’s going to matter.” You can’t apologize your way into people’s hearts ... You have to go full force."

"Leaden trumpets spit the soot of power they say "I'm on your side when nobody is, cause nobody is. Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear""

"We are waiting on a telegram to give us news of the fall I am sorry to report dear Paris is burning after all We have taken to the streets in open rejoice revolting We are dancing a black waltz — fair Paris is burning after all."

"Sticks and stones have made me smarter it's words that cut me under my armor they say..."

"What me worry? I never do I'm always amused and amusing you"

"What me worry? I never do. Life is one charming ruse for us lucky few.Have I fooled you, dear? The time is coming near when I'll give you my hand and I'll say, "It's been grand, but... I'm out of here I'm out of here""

"The first thing I did when I picked up any instrument, when I was five years old, was write a song. It's kind of funny; I thought about it, statements that it's a "solo effort" — it's kind of like, "Oh, well I've been doing this since I was five." I was kind of doing this before I did anything else."

"I was recording with The Polyphonic Spree, recording The Fragile Army, and we were holed up in January in Minnesota at our studio. They called Mike in to play, and we just hit it off, in a really, really special way. Actually, the night after meeting and having a conversation with him, I sat down and I wrote "All My Stars Aligned". And I just kind of had an idea, "Wouldn't it be amazing if Mike Garson played? So the guy who played solo in Aladdin Sane, wouldn't it be amazing if this guy played this song?" And I wrote it, based on a conversation we had, but I didn't want to ask him, because I felt shy, and nervous, and everything. It was a few months later, actually, we kind of got in touch, and, 'Oh, what are you doing?', and I sent him a couple songs that I was working on. I sent him "Your Lips Are Red" and I sent him "All My Stars Aligned", just to show, you know, 'wink-wink, hint-hint, this is what I'm doing.' And he wrote me back, the things that we'd said, and asked to play on the record. So I was, 'Well, okay, if you insist…' That worked out pretty miraculously."

"I enjoyed, and I tried to soak up and learn everything as fast as I could from doing any kind of music. It's good to have a gig. If you're a musician, it's good to be working. I love doing all of it, but Marry Me is my baby, St. Vincent is my child."

"In a really great way, you simultaneously try to take up as little and as much space as possible."

"Some songs I wrote that night, and some songs took nine months to arrange, get how I positioned them. Some songs I wrote parts of when I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… Just putting it together, just finding the right place for it. So it's really been a long time coming. ... I'm actually really restless, in the sense that I'd rather be always making something new. I'm really excited about making a second record. I've got a lot of things up my sleeve, I guess."

"I certainly owe a lot of awesomeness to blogs, to people who have been blogging about a show, or blogging about a single, or blogging about something. It's just amazing to me that it seems to be a nice equalizer. People don't necessarily need the clout of a big "record company machine" to put their face on a billboard. It seems more organic and honest in a lot of ways, for fans of music to be critics I suppose."

"I'm a debut artist, I'm not established — nobody would write about it if they didn't like it. So I'm waiting for the next album for the backlash."

"Here's an awesome tour story: I was playing these two shows last fall in Europe, we played at Reykjavík, and the three or four days we were in Reykjavík happened to be the one and only Sugarcubes reunion show… So it was like, tour of a lifetime."

"I'm not your mother's favorite dog I'm not the carpet you walk on I'm not one small atomic bomb I'm not any any any anything at all."

"Now, now ... You don't mean that say you're sorry You don't mean that ... I'll make you sorry"

"I'm not the pawn to your king I'm not your world on a string I'm not anyone you'll beat I'm not anything"

"While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints. While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day, I'm inside a still life with the other absentee."

"While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints."

"Come, my love, the stage is waiting, Be the one to save my saving grace."

"While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my grace, on rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage. While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made, through storms of red roses we've exited the stage"

"Your lips are red My face is red from reading your red lips"

"Your skin's so fair its not fair"

"Marry me, John, I'll be so good to you — You won't realize I'm gone, You won't realize I'm gone."

"Many people wanna make money, make love, make friends, make peace with death — But most mainly want to win the game they came to win they want to come out ahead. But you, you're a rock, with a heart like a socket I can plug into at will. And will you guess when I come around next. I hope your open sign is blinking still."

"As for me I would have to agree, I'm as fickle as a paper doll being kicked by the wind — when I touch down again I'll be in someone elses arms"

"I read the signs, I got all my stars aligned, My amulets, my charms, I set all my false alarms, So I'll be someone Who won't be forgotten."

"I do a dance to make the rain come, Smile to keep the sky from falling down, down, down, down. Collect the love that I've been given Build a nest for us to sleep in here You know it's real."

"There are no signs, There are no stars aligned, No amulets no charms, To bring you back to my arms. There's just this human heart. That's built with this human fault. What was your question? Love is the answer."

"It's time. You are light. I guess you are afraid of what everyone is made of — Time and Light."

"All your praying moments amount to just one breath. Please keep your victory But give me little death."

"I'm crawling through landmines Just to know where you are."

"Romeo, where'd you go? It's been years and still no sign, But I'm keeping hope alive.Juliet, how you been? You look like death like you sure could use some rest from this place human racing and the faces of people who pound at your door They always want more — they want more."

"Tell the truth now Your heart is a strange little orange to peel What's the deal?"

"Little lamb, what's your plan? Greener pastures in the sky? It's a shame you want to die know why Just to find you've been blinded to the greenest of pastures they're right here on Earth For what it's worth you're not the first to break my heart."

"Lover, I don’t play to win but for the thrill until I’m spent. Paint the black hole blacker. Paint the black hole blacker"

"What do I share? What do I keep from all the strangers Who sleep where I sleep?"

"Good souls have born better sons, Better souls born worse ones. Paint the black hole blacker..."

"The keys are in my pocket and they rattle you awake."

"I'm a wife in watercolors I can wash away what seventeen cold showers couldn't wash away."

"Honey what reveals you is what you hide away."

"Let's pour wine in coffee cups and drive around the neighborhood And shine the headlights on houses until all the news is good."

"Tomorrow's some kind of Strangerland where all the news is good."

"What would the neighbors think? Oh no! If they only knew."

"Tomorrow's some kind of Stranger I'm not supposed to see."

"You're a supplement, You're a salve, You're a bandage, pull it off I can quit you, cut it out. You're a patient, iron lung."

"I think I love you I think I'm mad."

"The unkissed girls and boys of paradise Are lining up around the block Back pockets full of dynamite While their neighbors talk and talk."

"Just like an amnesiac, trying to get my senses back. Oh where did they go."

"I traded my plot of land for a plane to anywhere Oh where did you go. And I can't see the future but I know it's watching me. All my old friends aren't so friendly And all my old haunts are now haunting me."

"I wish I had a gentle mind and a spine made up of iron."

"Honey can you reach the spots that need oiling and fixing. H E L P Help Me."

"If you want we could go somewhere else."

"We're sleeping underneath the bed to scare The monsters out With our dear daddy's Smith and Wesson. We've got to teach them all a lesson."

"Honey the party went away quickly, but thats the trouble with ticking and talking."

"Oh but I'd pay anything to keep my conscience clean. I'm keeping my eyes on the the exit sign. Steady now."

"I'm just the same but brand new And anything you wrote I checked for codes and clues."

"Bodies like wrecking balls fuck, fuck with dynamite."

"You can hear one note of a Kate Bush song, or one note of her voice even, and know immediately what it is. And that is the biggest feat of any artist, especially when you consider, you know, all the roads that she's gone down."

"For that to have come out of someone's brain, period, is a remarkable feat. For that to have come out of someone's brain, at 17 years old — this incredible song, incredible song … there aren't that many amazing pop songs that have two or three key changes in them —‚ and I'm not talking about some modulations, I'm talking: "Okay, now we're in the key of Q." It's like WHAT?! But it's so brilliant, it's so memorable. I always karaoke that song — if I drink enough."

"I read an interview with her one time, where she was asked, something along the lines of "Why do you write from the perspective of a lot of characters?" And she said very simply and eloquently "because they're more interesting than I am.""

"I'm convinced that, as great as that record sounds, if you had anyone else sing it, you know, anyone else try to kind of weave and make it do that thing where it burns like wildfire and it comes alive, no one else could do it. It's incredible the way she kind of brings this cold arctic atmosphere, It's just like fire, you know? It's like all aaarh coming out of her mouth. … and now I'm listening to the song in my head. "Do you know what I really need? Do you know what I really need? I need lalalala yea yo yea yo your love.""

"I still remember going to the CD store and buying The Sensual World when I was 16, and the cover — there was a rose in front of her mouth, that has bloomed, she's got big wide eyes, and I remember, you know, putting it on the shitty car stereo on the way home, you know — and my life was forever changed."

"You don’t ever get the sense that she's making music to pander to anyone. I think you always get her absolute best attempt at her true vision whenever you get a Kate Bush record."

"The first time I saw her perform — she must’ve been 15, maybe 14 — she got up in a club in Dallas, sat in with her guitar teacher’s band, played "The Wind Cries Mary" and just blew everybody away. ... At that time she was very shy and diminutive, except when you listened to her guitar playing. ... She’s physically a very intense player. She takes a kind of ferocious approach to the technique of the guitar, a real high energy."

"Her stage name was inspired by the hospital where Dylan Thomas spent his last hours. “It’s the place where poetry comes to die,” she said, joking. “That’s me.""

"If I was a better poet like William Carlos Williams I’d be able to write about anything, but I’m just a minor poet. So I just write about things like moments of crisis that tend to be on the sadder, darker side. You can spend ten minutes in a really dark place and write a song about it that lasts forever."

"There are no angels there are devils in many ways"

"Crowded fifty to a room, There's too many rats in this cage of the world, And the women know their place, They sit home and write letters, And when they visit once a year, Well they both just sit there and stare, Gotta keep bars in between us, See how we are"

"The life I lead is mighty slim pickens, there ain't much call for stompin' on chickens"

"Climbing uphill, one dollar bill, this town is far."

"As I walk through This wicked world Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself Is all hope lost? Is there only pain and hatred, and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, Theres one thing I wanna know: What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?"

"So where are the strong And who are the trusted? And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony — 'cause each time I feel it slippin away, it just makes me wanna cry: What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?"

"I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll."

"And so it goes and so it goes But where it's goin' no one knows."

"I pick myself up off the ground to have you knock me back down Again and again and when I ask you to explain You say, you've got to be... Cruel to be kind in the right measure Cruel to be kind it's a very good sign Cruel to be kind means that I love you Baby, you got to be cruel, you got to be cruel to be kind."

"Even if I was really prolific — which I'm not — I think I'd always put at least a couple of covers on my record. I think it's a sort of healthy thing to do. It shows that you're not totally self-obsessed."

"I've always felt quite like an outsider. I don't really belong in the mainstream, and I quite like that."

"You know, the actual punk music, I didn't care for at all. I thought it was all rubbish, really. It was the attitude, the way that things were being shaken up, that excited me more. I still liked people who were good, you know? Who could actually play. Even though The Damned were a punk group, they played great. As did Elvis, and as did Ian. They were the ones who interested me. Not some of those daft punkers, especially the ones who had people who were actually pretty good musicians sort of pretending to play badly. That was just so stupid, and missed the point completely, I thought. So it was the people who were true to themselves, I think, that were the exciting ones."

"I am the blues I am the blues The whole world knows I've been mistreated and misused."

"According to Biblical history and all of the history of the world, the blues was built in man from the beginning. The first thing that came out of man is the blues because, according to the Scriptures, when God made man, man was lonesome and blue."

"That's the reason I always say about music, the blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits. Without the roots, you have no fruits so it's better keeping the roots alive because it means better fruits from now on."

"The blues is the roots; everything else is the fruits."

"Some people think they've got religion, they've got the blues."

"This is what you should do: Go to your record store and buy all the GG ALLIN recordings you can find. If they dont have any in stock, tell them to order some. If they refuse, then do what you have to do. Call radio stations and demand GG Allin. Spray paint "GG ALLIN" everywhere. Make them aware that the disease and the Scumfuc tradition is still spreading. Write "GG ALLIN" on all your dollar bills. Any bills you have. People do not throw money away, so it would be a free way to get the message out. You must do it every day of your life. We must live for the Rock 'N' Roll underground. It CAN be dark and dangerous again. It CAN be threatning to our society as it was meant to be. IT MUST BE UNCOMPROMISING. And with me as your leader, it will happen. I am ready to lead you, my allies, into the real Rock 'N' Roll underground. Let's get started."

"I'm trying to bring danger back in to rock 'n' roll and there are no limits and no laws and I break down every barrier put in front of me till the day I die."

"You know the whole thing with society today is go to school, get a job, get married, get kids, take out loans, dig a fucking hole you can never get out of and to me that's just a way of the government chaining you down so that you can never get out of their grip. Somebody like me who can do what ever they want, I never have to pay taxes, I you know fuck who ever I want, I can go here, I can go there and you know somebody calls me I can go tomorrow, I don't have to think about well I gotta take care of this, I can just go. That's the only way to fucking live."

"Everybody's an enemy. Fuck. I hate everybody. I'm not part of any scene. I do my own thing. My mind is a machine gun, my body is the bullets, the audience is the target."

"Alright, I'm ignorant, but I like to fuck, I like to drink, I like to suck cock. Who gives a fuck."

"Anybody has any marihuana? Any acid? Any hard drugs? Bring it up here and put it right by the monitor 'cause I'd be really glad to do it. I really like to get fucked up tonight."

"You wanna eat my shit, It's on my fingers for you. Alright, I like a little shit on my side. Makes me feel so good and smell so lovely. I love diarrhea. So much of it for you here."

"Hey, how many people here are in high school? Any high school kids here? Are you in high school? Are you teacher's pet? You're sure? I was, man. I used to fuck my teacher every night. I lost my virginity with her, man. She was fucking nice."

"Jerry Springer: Please meet GG Allin. GG has been arrested more than 52 times in over 12 states for the nudity, obscenity and violence that are part of his music performances. He says the fans love the thrill of coming to his show knowing that their lives are in danger."

"Jerry Springer: And what do you do with your concerts?"

"GG Allin: I do what ever it takes. If somebodys in my way I take him out. You know. They're my enemy. I don't look at them, they're not my friends."

"Jerry Springer: Ok. But the audience is sitting out here and you're up onstage. What do you do onstage?"

"GG Allin: I might go and kick somebody in the head, I might grab a girl and force her to perform oral sex with me. I've had sex on stage with men, women and animals and everything in between."

"GG Allin: How many Christians are in this audience? How many of you go to church on sunday? You're the biggest hypocrites that I've ever seen, because you'll kneel at an alter and you worship a false god, the real god is up here $#%@^&*. When they come to my shows, you eat the body of Christ, They're gonna' eat the body of GG Allin!"

"GG Allin: If you think I'm into this for the money you're dead wrong because I'm not doing this for the money. I'm doing it because it lives inside of me."

"GG Allin: I've seen people in my audience leave with broken bones, broken arms. I've seen them leave on strechers. I've seen rapes before me."

"GG Allin: I got to tell you one thing that is really bothering me. I went to prison for two years for what I did to a girl and she did the same thing to me but because she was a girl they let her of and put me in prison because she was the weaker sex. Now if women want equal rights they got to do equal time. Ok, I cut her, I burned her, I drank her blood but she also did the same to me. It was consexual agreement but in the courtroom they said that I was to blame because I'm GG Allin, I'm the king of the underground. They need to nail me to a cross."

"An audience member: Question is for GG. Sir, if a woman is at your concert and chooses to leave through an exit door because she didn't realize she may be getting raped are you gonna let her leave or are you gonna rape her?"

"GG Allin: Depends on if I can get there quicker than she can."

"Jerry Springer: What would you have been if you would have not been a performer?"

"GG Allin: I could have possibly been a serial killer or a mass murderer."

"Jane Whitney: GG Allin brags he's about to become the leader, the messiah for America's youth. He already claims to have a million followers. Where ever he goes he plays to sell out crowds and this is what they see: concerts filled with violence, bloodshed and sexual assault. GG Allin wants to lead America's young people in a bloody revolution to take over the country and he says nothing can be done to stop him."

"GG Allin: There's such a fierce intense fire burning inside of me, so much that it just wants to explode."

"GG Allin: Nobody will stop me 'cause I'm the true underground messiah. When you come to my show you're going to a war and I'm out for violence, chaos, lawlessness all the way. I don't care about anybody or anything except myself and my mission and your kids out there, if you got kids out there they're gonna be my kids. I'm gonna own those kids. They're gonna do anything that I say."

"GG Allin: I get letters from all over the world. People worship me. I'm gonna rape the girls. I might rape the guys. I might have sex. I want it all. I want it all and I'm gonna have it all 'cause I am everything."

"Jane Whitney: You go way beyond sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll in your performances: you self-mutilate on stage."

"GG Allin: I self-mutilate, I beat the shit out of my audience, if they're in my way I take em out. I don't care about anybody or anything. When you come to my show I'm the boss, I'm the king, you do what I say. You can challenge me. I have no problem with that. I like the confrontation but you're gonna lose."

"GG Allin: I am who I am and I'm not phony like everybody else out there. I am real and how many of you can at 35 years old sleep with 16, 12, 13 year old girls and boys and animals? Hey, this is the life. I've had it all and I've got your kids."

"Jane Whitney: What's your ultimate idea of performance, of a fantasy performance?"

"It's not a fantasy performance, Jane. Come on. Everything I do is real. It comes out of my head. I live this life every day. When I'm onstage it's my therapy. It's not a performance. It's a ritual. And the ultimate performance would be when I've reached my peak and I'm not there yet so don't you all clap when I say this I'll commit suicide and I'll take your kids with me."

"When you reach your peak its time to die."

"I just think that touring with GG is a great experience because you don't go onstage, you don't do the same thing night after night like most of these lame ass boring bands. You get up there, you're gonna see something different and something new and something exciting every night. Somebody gets beat up or sent to the hospital or prison or what ever. It's a war out there you know."

"GG Allin is an entertainer with a message to a sick society. He makes us look at it for what we really are. The human is just another animal who is able to speak out freely, to express himself clearly. Make no mistake about it, behind what he does is a brain."

"We don't allow any prick teasing bimbos on our program. If they don't put out they're thrown out of the van at sixty miles an hour. And they can turn some tricks at the truck stop. That's the best place to find wimmen and that's the best place to leave wimmen."

"Interviewer: Everybody's always wondering about the anal retentiveness of the lyrics. Are you guys really into anal sex? Is that really a large part of your life? Dr. Heathen Scum: Only heterosexual anal sex."

"As you know I have been preaching along with El Duce and Sickie Wifebeater for many years against homosexuality in rock and it's time to take revenge on people that try to stop rock. The real rock, hetero rock. There for Bowie is going on trial within Rock Kourt."

"I was been raised to believe I was an artist. I believed what my parents said and fulfilled it, like a prophecy."

"All we have is the past, but for people of the future, there's not even going to be a history there. The history of recorded music has turned into a flat fucking screen of an iTunes playlist. I'm preserving something that's going extinct! That's all rock'n'roll has been since day one. It's all necrophilia."

"I was in Brooklyn and it was freezing cold. I was living in a room with no windows and paying too much in rent. I envisioned sitting under a palm tree. I followed my nose from there."

"It's a bit like being a mad scientist. You mix a bit of this with some of that. You're never sure what's going to happen. But I'd rather blow up the laboratory than keep reinventing the wheel."

"People are very much victims of their lack of education. This of course makes them a lot easier to control. It works the same way there as it does (in America). I wouldn't say that surprised me."

"A record should be like a bus ticket to somewhere, but you're not sure where that somewhere is going to be. (It) shouldn't just give you thirteen variations on the same four elements, like McDonald's, or something. 'You liked that one? Well here's the same thing, except with extra cheese.'"

"I've been down so long that coming up is giving me the bends."

"I'm sipping on an oxygen cocktail with an ambulance chaser."

"I'm a raging success as a failure."

"Another perfect catastrophe is just waiting to happen, watching for the moment to transpire. Another perfect catastrophe is just dying to go down. It's only looking for the perfect place and time."

"A thousand eyes are gazing down like bullet holes shot into the roof, as I lie here scratching for a grain of truth."

"Every word I never spoke dies like a spark smothered in smoke pulled from the glow of a shitty cigarette."

"Friday was the crucifixion Saturday, cremation under glass. The resurrection was on Sunday, no.. correction make it Monday; cause Monday's when they come to take the trash."

"You can give your confession tomorrow, if you find a priest dumb enough to believe, because it only hurts when I breathe."

"Late for work again today. Somebody was lying down on the job again. Will you people please stop jumping under my train? 'Ladies and gentlemen, there will be a slight delay while we hose the blood away.'"

"Everybody loves you when you're dead. Everyone is suddenly your dearest friend. Nobody talks no dirt about you. But life, it just goes on above your head, when you're dead."

"Someone's gonna get hurt before you're through. Someone's gonna pay for the things you do. How many hearts must break, how many will it take? To satisfy you, just to satisfy you?"

"She's a good-hearted woman in love with a good-timin' man. She loves him in spite of his ways she don't understand. With teardrops and laughter they pass through this world hand in hand, A good-hearted woman, lovin' a good-timin' man."

"Let the world call me a fool, But if things are right with me and you, That's all that matters. And I'll do anything you asked me to."

"This time if you want me to come back, it's up to you. But remember I won't allow the things you used to do. You're gonna have to toe the mark and walk the line; This time will be the last time."

"Oh rainy day woman, I've never seem to see you for the good times or the sunshine. You have been a friend of mine, rainy day woman."

"It's the same old tune, fiddle and guitar. Where do we take it from here? Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars; We've been the same way for years. We need to change."

"They oughtta give me the Wurlitzer Prize For all the silver I let slide down the slot. Playin' those songs sung blue That help me remember you. I don't wanna get over you."

"I've always been crazy and the trouble that it's put me through; I've been busted for things that I did, and I didn't do. I can't say I’m proud of all of the things that I’ve done, But I can say I’ve never intentionally hurt anyone."

"Don't you think this outlaw bit has done got out of hand? What started out to be a joke, the law don't understand. Was it singing through my nose that got me busted by the man? Maybe this here outlaw bit has done got out of hand."

"Just some good ol' boys, Never meaning no harm. Beats all you never saw Been in trouble with the law Since the day they were born."

"Jennings was an integral part of outlaw country’s development and has released some of the most best country albums of all time. He’s often cited by alt-country singers like recent Grammy nominee Sturgill Simpson and Jamey Johnson as a major influence."

"A powerful singer, versatile guitarist and phenomenally successful songwriter, he favored several 1953 Telecasters outfitted in black-and-white leather with an oak-and-floral motif. His tribute Fender Telecaster, a Custom Shop model introduced in 1996, is based on his original 1953 guitar."

"Roger: For starters they drink at a younger age so inevitably they’re a little rowdier."

"JR: Cause Aaron Barrett* signed off on the publishing. He sued us because he said that we ripped off “Sell Out”"

"Roger: So we had to wait until it, like, settled in court so we could figure it out. I mean, we’re friends and everything, but when it comes to money…"

"*Aaron Barrett is the lead singer of Reel Big Fish."

"Roger: [laughs] Yeah, there’s a lot more bands, a lot more stages, a lot more really bad haircuts."

"Roger: I was super, crazy little! Yeah, like my dad's a guitar player and my uncle was in bands when I was growing up. I sat behind a drum set when I was like six years old. I started taking piano lessons when I was like nine. So, like I've been around music my whole, entire, entire life."

"Roger: They have internet now on tour."

"Roger: That was our tenth Warped Tour, it’s out of control, we’ve played six full Warped Tours and partial Warped Tours, Australia Warped Tour, European Warped Tour, bits and pieces of US Warped Tours. We’re like those hookers that have been around so long that they don’t even have pimps anymore. Actually it’s really organized, we hadn’t been on it in three years, the whole thing, and it seems really on, not only the bands and stuff but the crew has done it so many times that they didn’t screw anything up."

"Roger: I don't pay much attention to what is popular to be honest. It's a never ending cycle - style comes in and out of style - I try not to get caught up in all of that, and just listen to stuff i like, and play what I like; popularity is overrated."

"Roger: It’s a little more freedom, sort of, but it’s more work, too, to keep up with all the little things. It’s kinda worth it, I guess; nobody really buys CDs so it really doesn’t matter."

"Roger: Well no I think it goes a long way with people who are actually fans of the band. I understand that people who do buy the records are stoked when it’s something that has some value and some thought and actually looks cool. Hopefully slowly that will start to get people motivated to buy vinyl again. Not only does it sound better but you get more of an experience with the artwork and stuff and the lyric sheet in your hand rather than on your computer screen. There’s something more intimate about that. I think slowly but surely vinyl will continue to kind of hold steady even with people not buying CDs anymore."

"Roger: But really, a punk rock kid is the same all over the world, it’s the same dress code, everyone’s wearing chucks, it’s the same skull tattoo, it’s the same look, and everyone’s happy to be there. Our fans are the same everywhere."

"Roger: Umm.. I had a lot of different phases when I was younger. When I was really little, I liked a lot of stuff like, Iron Maiden, Kiss, and Def Leppard and like Aerosmith. Stuff like that. That's what I grew up on in the '70s you know. Metal like Slayer and Metallica and then I got into punk rock and metal when I was in junior high. like The Descendents and like Operation Ivy and you know.. that whole era of stuff."

"Roger: You know it’s always a good time people are energetic and it’s awesome. Totally excited."

"Roger: I think that we still do what the song is asking for; you can't really control what kind of songs come out while writing,, so if the songs needs horns, we'll do some horns, if not, then that's ok too. We really don't think too much about what our fans want us to write, we just try to stay true to what is best for the song."

"Roger: Uhh.. You know.. I'm really picky and I don't actually like very many bands. The only like new band that I really like is System of A Down. I think they are amazing! It's good stuff. It's aggressive and unpredictable and I love it!!"

"Roger: Yeah, it’s really not that rad."

"Roger: The press girl’s not that cool (chuckles) but that’s all. I’m just kidding! (Press girl making mean face). I’m just kidding! I just like that face…that gasp."

"Roger: Buddy’s my main influence."

"Buddy: I wear boxers, Roger wears boxer briefs."

"Roger: Yeah, our bunks are right across from each other so sometimes we sing each other to sleep at night. It’s lovely, you should check it out."

"Roger: Let's see.. Chris and Vinnie knew each other in high school and were in bands and then moved to Gainesville, Florida for college. I moved to Gainesville, Florida for college. And then Chris had a party and I told him I played guitar. Which I played guitar at that time. And he said you should come and play guitar then I went to practice with a guitar and then they're like, "Oh, by the way, we're going to be kicking out our bass player - would you mind playing bass?" I said OK. So I went out and bought a bass and that was in '92. And that's how it started. Then we started getting into the horn player thing. Shuffled a few horn players over the years but it's been the same main four guys the whole time."

"Roger: It's all right,, they seem to be backing the new record, and aside from the typical major label red tape - where it takes forever to get things done - I think Warner is still into the band."

"Roger: Yeah, we are at the ass end of a tour another four shows or so."

"Roger: Umm.. I couldn't tell you! I don't really know what the secret is. I've never been in any other situation. For us, we just really try to really deliver when we play and make that the focal point of what's going on. And then there's the live show. We try to be really good to our fans in the way of musically by having things up. Fans that have been fans of our records will always have something to relate and not have a record that is completely different ever, but also not doing the same thing over and over and over again. Trying to have a steady change on what kind of music we're writing and stuff like that. I think touring is the key to it. We've always been a touring based band. We play a lot, a lot of shows and that's what keeps us fresh in peoples' minds."

"Roger: It’s totally cool you know. We go out there and put our best foot forward and we play songs we’ve played before, and that feels like we know what’s going to happen. The crowd is going to react to it or they’re not going to react to it. If we went out there and played all new songs it would be lame."

"Roger: It was awesome! A lot of fun, good fans, good shows. We toured with Reel Big Fish and when we tour together things seem to be awesome so no complaints"

"Roger: It seems that way – it’s kind of weird how things are with music these days. You’re not really touring for the record anymore ‘cause no one buys the record. Everything’s downloaded and all that kind of stuff. We have the new songs but we’re still just touring because we’d be on tour anyway, ya know what I mean. So yeah we’re still touring in support of the new record but the new record is kind of supporting us sort of"

"Roger: See.. that's a tough question 'cause I went to a lot of really small shows for bands that nobody knew who they really were 'cause that's the kind of thing that I grew up on - was like going to clubs and stuff. The first like real, real concert that I went to was U2 at the Orange Bowl in Miami for the Joshua Tree Tour. I think it was in '87? Something like that. Yeah... I think that was it. We were way up in the nosebleeds and Bono was like this big! (Roger shows thumb and index finger really close) (all laugh) But, that's what I thought a concert was at that point - really huge. Everything else was more like a rehearsal or you know.. club shows. Like oh, that's nothing - 500 kids. It doesn't seem that weird. I've played in front of 500 kids at my piano recitals and I didn't think it was a big deal."

"Roger: Yeah, I don't know. It was awesome. It's a great feeling. I don't really know. It's built up so slowly that I can't even tell you when it actually went over the threshold of 500 kids or 1000 kids or 2000 kids or whatever - but we've stood it all. We've played with 80,000 kids at these festivals in Europe and we've played to eight kids, you know? It feels great. It feels great every time. As long as there's somebody out there singing or jumping around making an idiot out of themselves just as much as we are, then we think it's ok."

"Roger: We ran into a mall, and ran throogh the song and then some overzealous security guy at the mall thought he'd impress his boss with an arrest. It was dumb, the cops really didn't wanna arrest chris, but it was the mall security guy that was really was being an asshole and so Chris was detained, and booked. It was a pain in the ass, but at least we got him out with enough time to finish the video."

"Roger: It’s complicated. It kind of has different phases. It will be like Chris [Demakes, guitarist/singer] or I will have a song idea and Vinnie Fiorello [drummer/lyricist] will write lyrics that go with that song idea or Vinnie will just have words that he wrote down and we’ll take that and sort of mold it into a song. I mean it kind of happens in different ways and not everyone is always involved, and sometimes everyone is involved it just depends. There’s no like formula for writing songs at least not in our band. It’s pretty much however it comes apart and falls apart and everything if it feels right it feels right the song is the ultimate guide. Am I being too hippie for you?"

"Roger: I also have been producing/recording more and more, and that takes time, too. But that's what i always wanted to do, work on music,, so it's not a bad thing."

"Roger: That is true to a degree; I usually have songs ideas demoed out, and I will pass them off to vinnie, and he will focus on the lyrics. Then we all get together, work out the nuts and bolts of the song, kick around some changes and everyone is involved in the finishing touches. Chris will do the same, bring in a song idea, and we'll all throw in ideas and the songs just evolve. Some songs change very little from the initial conception, (like a new song called "In-dependence Day") and others really go through many arrangement changes/lyric changes, (like "Still Life")"

"QRO: How many Pez dispensers do you have?"

"Roger: Well over 800 at this point."

"Roger: Well it’s been the same members of the band since ‘92 with the exception of one horn player. So it’s been the four of us since the beginning of the band and then we’ve had some different horn players but JR’s the new guy and he’s been in the band for eight years so it hasn’t been that drastic."

"Roger: Oh! I think just having the opportunity to be on yet another major label again after being on Capitol in the late '90s and then going to an indie label and coming back.. and now we're on Warner Brothers. Just having those kind of oppurtunities is pretty awesome. Because there are bands that struggle their whole entire life time to just like you know.. "oh, we just want to be on the radio - we want to be on a major label. That's all we really want." We've had the chance to do that twice. I think that's pretty amazing."

"Roger: No I don’t collect stem variations – the different colored bottom part – cause you can have one Pez dispenser that has a head and there will be the same head but the bottom will have a different color. I don’t collect those at all so mine are all different Pez dispensary heads, because the head is really the most collectible part. I’m trying to give you lessons on Pez dispensers… How dare you suggest I collect stem variations? Are they all duplicates? NO THEY’RE NOT DUPLICATES! That would be cheating."

"Roger: I think it's different in the way of how they handle stuff. I don't think they were really trying to. They wouldn't want us on it if they didn't like our music, you know what I'm saying? They obviously want us to create what we create and then they do what they're going to do. It's more things like interviews and more videos and photo shoots.. things like that with a major label kind of brings to the table. Which I may or may not be into - but it's a cool chance."

"Roger: Yeah! There's one that we'll be supposedly filming when we get back from Europe. Not really sure exactly what's going to happen or anything in the video 'cause Vinnie and I had like a great idea for the video and they basically said that they would have to spend way too much money on it so.. there you go. They don't want to pay for the special effects that we were talking about. It's a bummer though. It would have been good. (laughs)"

"Roger: I have 800 Mickey mice. I just love Mickey Mouse, I have 800 of them, it’s awesome"

"Roger: Umm.. I don't know! It's kind of um.. a little more.. it's more in the darks of being really singy songy. It's nothing super blazing fast. There's not any super slow reggae kind of thing that we've done before. It's not like that. It's sort of in the tempo and sort of really poppy and really catchy. There's some really good stuff. There are some songs I'm really excited about. It's always been melody based I think. When we did our last record, we wrote like 32 songs and they ended coming out on two separate CDs. And this time we didn't really do that! We kind of just took 15 ideas and used those as the focal point and then we wrote around those and just improved on those 14 and kept bringing things in and out of those songs as opposed to having a whole bunch of songs. Whether that's better or not, I don't know. It definitely seems a bit more focused. We don't have a bunch of extra songs or anything like that. When is was time to actually record, we have everything pretty well sorted and that was cool. There's definitely some good stuff on there."

"Roger: Well, because you’re guaranteed to see Buddy make some funny faces, you’re guaranteed that Chris will say something that is sort of out of line or inappropriate, and I’m gonna play a bunch of fuckin’ really fast bass licks, it’s gonna be great."

"Roger: I’m a Back in Black guy. I can’t help it man. I see both sides of that fence. It’s a tough one."

"Roger: It depends.. A song is melody and lyrics and the music, you know? For our band, Vinnie the drummer writes like 95% of the lyrics so he's the main songwriter if you want to look at it that way. But he doesn't write any chords or melodies or any of that kind of stuff. So, it's kind of hard to split up or dissect a song that way, you know? On this record.. it's pretty fair, you know, pretty even between myself and Chris.. Actually JR and I. JR's the first song writer outside of Chris, Vinnie or I to like actually sit down and reword a song for the record. So he's becoming like a bigger part of that sort of thing. I don't know. It just depends. I definitely write a bunch of them! (laughs)"

"Roger: Yeah “Does the Lion City Still Roar?” Actually I saw it on Fuse today, it was awesome. Steven played it today. Download that bad boy."

"Roger: Hmm.. I don't know. I like playing at home because sleeping at home after the show is a bonus. That's really nice. I'd have to say I really like playing Japan. There's just a different level of respect or something that goes on with the fans. They're just completely animalistic and going crazy during the show and then in between songs like as soon as a song stops, it's silent 'cause they want to hear what you have to say so they can try and understand what you're saying. It's really awesome - it's great. Even in the UK and London - places like that, fans are just rabid and go completely crazy and it's always fun. I'd have to say Tokyo and London are pretty awesome"

"Roger: God I seem that crazy then, is that what you’re saying?"

"Roger: To some degree everyone is involved ya know what I mean. Chris doesn’t really do that much, he’s the lead singer he’s allowed to do whatever he wants. He’s that guy. I kind of deal with all the audio stuff and Buddy [Schaub, trombonist] deals with all the video stuff and [Peter] JR [Wasilewiski, saxophonist] deals with all the online stuff and Vinnie deals with everything else and we have a great publicist named Rey [Roldan] he totally does what we need him to do. It’s a different world but a lot of bands are doing it and you know it’s a way to stay on a smooth track not to have any kind of weird outside voices."

"Roger: I think the best show is every night. I don't know every night we pretty much have the best show. We don't really have bad shows. The only thing that would contribute to a bad show is if nobody showed up. But, people do show up - so I can't really say. We did this tour in Australia and it was like a.. we were playing way out in Perth - you know, like in the middle of nowhere, the most remote city on the planet! But, we had a day off before that, so our booking agent got us to play at this tiny, tiny town north of Perth. It was a tiny club show, tiny PA, no baracade, like less then 200 kids and it was completely insaine! It was awesome! And then the next night we were playing in Perth and it was like 700 kids but the show just wasn't as awesome, you know? So it doesn't really ever matter where it is. I don't know. It wasn't a bad show! (laughs)"

"Roger: Uh no – that would be dangerous because they’re in my bedroom. People could get hurt. But no, I made shelves and it takes up a giant wall."

"Roger: Um, I would add probably a little bit of salt, and I like anything that has ginger in it, so I would put a little ginger into Warped Tour and it would be PERFECT"

"Roger:I think everyone can take different things from the lyrics, so it's up to you if you feel there is a theme,, to me , it's obviously LTJ lyrics and so it's always sort of dark, yet positive at the same time. I think the lyrics usually have some sort of light at the end of the tunnel ideal going on"

"Roger: No, not anyone in the band. No, not really. We don't get that. There was one time where we played a show and we were playing at Sunlight Convention Center or something and they just had no idea what they were doing security wise. Kids were dancing and stuff and kicking stuff on the stage and this security guy had no idea on what to do so he just pushes this kid right off the stage and he just falls and breaks his leg in like a second! There's been some stories like that. Faulty employees, I called it. (laughs) You have no idea what to expect. Sometimes we'll play a college show and we'll just show up and start doing our thing and security's like stop, no moshing, no crowd surfing, no circle pits or whatever. Well, why did you have us play here? Don't you know that's what we do? Haven't you ever heard of us before? That's what we do! We get people excited, get them running around! They're going to jump around! That's what we're trying to do!! (laughs) Get some energy flowing between us."

"Roger:I don't think its odd. I think these days, with the internet and DVDs with every CD, fans want more content, so you give it to them! I always loved watching the making of videos of bands that i like , so we thought that our fans wanna know some of our behind the scene stuff."

"Roger: [talking about pez dispensers] Psychedelic Eye from the 60’s. Look it up nerds."

"Roger: Yeah, and then they get kicked out and then I got to go bail them out and then the security guards are having a fit and then we have to send our tour manager to talk to whoever's running security. Ahh, it's crazy. Crazy times!"

"Roger: On a single tour.. Hmm.. Probably more than five. Cause when we first started, we had a really old van. It was a '79 Chevy. It was like the kind of thing where we'd pull over and get gas and it'd need two quarts of oil every time. That kind of thing. It'd break down pretty frequently. We have bad luck with vans. It's some sort of curse. But, then we got another one after that and that one was good to us for many years."

"Roger: Nobody cares. So anymore Warped Tour questions?"

"Roger: It does a little bit of both I think it depends on the band. On a band that is enormously huge like Metallica it definitely hurts cause people are just going to download their stuff-period. But a smaller band maybe that hasn’t sold anything but has been able to have some good shows and get some fans out because of their MySpace or whatever you know what I mean. Using the Internet as a tool to promote the band is awesome. My sisters’ band doesn’t have a CD or whatever but they constantly pull 100 kids at their shows because they promote heavily on the internet and they stay in touch with their fans that way so it can be either or. For Less Than Jake we’re right in the middle. We definitely get a lot of paths to talk about the band, and interviews, and stuff for sale, and you know what I mean MySpace’s and Facebook’s all that kind of stuff there’s a presence there that definitely helps the band. But at the same time I know we’re one of the bands that is a victim of a lot of downloading so there you go."

"Roger: Yeah, we're kind of like a rock band with a horn section and high energy. That is how I do say it when I meet people who have no idea who we are. Well, it's like fast reggae and a lot of singing and harmonies. There's a lot of jumping and sweating involved. There's a lot of exchanged energy. A high energy level kind of thing. I really don't like bands who stand around and stare at their shoes and don't really have anything to say."

"Roger: Yeah, we got out of our major label stuff and we’re just doing our own thing."

"Roger: New bands..old bands - whatever. It's kind of weird. I guess I stay out of the loop on new bands, younger bands an who's getting signed or how many records this band is making. Persoanlly I don't care about things like that. I like melodies and lyrics and songs and energy. Isn't that what's it all about?"

"Roger: It hasn’t really been set in stone either way for the time being it’s just Less Than Jake releases but it doesn’t mean it won’t ever have another band. We’ll just have to see where that one leads."

"Roger: i'm stoked that we have such hard core fans but I've never thought about it. It's been there all along,, and I think we are really lucky. I think all of the singles, and picture diskc, and toys and that sort of stuff has kept the collectors out there stoked."

"Roger: It’s exciting to play new songs live, we’ve been playing “Summon Monsters” and that’s on the new record it’s fast and got some fun fast quick bass licks that are fun to play so that’s a fun one to play live. Been getting off on that lately, and I think “Conviction Notice” is super solid live and the horn line is great. It’s fun to play new songs."

"Roger: Umm…last two cds… Bouncing Souls Gold Album and I bought System of a Down Steal This Album…"

"Roger: It’s a great way to pick up chicks cause they were making Rufinol Pez tablets for a while in Gainesville you could – never mind erase that part. Pez is rad."

"Roger: This place called Common Grounds that used to be called the Covered Dish. We’ve been playing there over the last thirteen years so that feels the most home-ish. [some background chatter] Yeah the old room moved to where the Covered Dish used to be, the old room is a club that’s called 1982 that my friend owns. That’s a cool little club. That’s more where I go to hangout than Common Grounds. Common Grounds is kind of hectic and that kind of thing but yeah it’s the same owner as it was from the little place."

"Roger: We’re playing like three songs and the old stuff that everyone wants to hear too. We can’t play just all brand new songs you got to mix it up a little."

"Roger: The new Metallica. The new Metallica record is pretty rockin’ I’ve been listening to that. I’ve been listening to the Josie and the Pussycats Soundtrack on repeat since about 2003. Les Paul the guitar player, Les Paul and Mary Ford – check that out, it’s good stuff. I’m like really picky. I don’t like very many new bands. I feel like I’m in trouble, not naming the hottest five bands out right now. Actually I heard a pretty good Hillary Duff song the other day, I was impressed. It was catchy. It was good pop."

"Roger: We will be hanging out for an extended amount of time in Europe. From November 1st until the end of our lives, it’s a very long tour. We’re playing the Fest on Halloween, which is my birthday in Florida – in Gainesville. We’re playing the Fest, my other band, Rehasher, is playing the Fest and we’re just going to be taking a little bit of time to breathe in January and probably be out on the road again pretty soon in the states. We’re doing some international stuff Australia, Japan, South America – that’s going on but nothing going on in the states quite yet."

"Roger: All right, cool. Thank you. Oh great, it ends on me saying I liked a Hillary Duff song. I was hoping for something else after that. Make something up, something… to be or not to be – anything."

"Dissent is a legitimate and essential right in any democracy and modern politicians must accept this fact with tolerance. A sense of proportion — and a sense of humour — is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness."

"Jung believed there was a large pattern to life, that it wasn't just chaos. Our song Synchronicity II is about two parallel events that aren't connected logically or causally, but symbolically."

"We are a parliamentary democracy; we don’t function by plebiscite. It’s dangerous. I don’t believe in referendums – Hitler and Mussolini organised referendums"

"I am the first male in the family not having had to shoot against another European"

"I know a great deal about Indian music and I have tried to understand its intricacies. I am aware how complex ragas are and how specific the rhythm is. I will spend the rest of my life discovering this wonderful India. I’ve become addicted to it."

"Democracy is under attack. It's under attack in every country in the world. It's in grave danger of being lost unless we defend it."

"The alternative to democracy is a nightmare, a prison, of the mind. That alternative is tyranny. All tyranny is based on a lie. The greater the tyranny, the bigger the lie."

"Disagree with the tyrant and you risk imprisonment, torture and death. Yet that is what we must do, all of us. We must protect our right to speak the truth."

"The war in the Ukraine is an absurdity, based upon a lie. If we swallow that lie, the lie will eat us. The lie is terrified of the truth."

"We must not lose this battle."

"With one breath, with one flow You will know Synchronicity A sleep trance, a dream dance, A shared romance Synchronicity A connecting principle Linked to the invisible Almost imperceptible Something inexpressible"

"If we share this nightmare Then we can dream Spiritus mundi If you act as you think The missing link Synchronicity"

"A star fall, a phone call It joins all Synchronicity It's so deep, it's so wide You're inside Synchronicity Effect without a cause Sub-atomic laws, scientific pause Synchronicity...."

"Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration But we know all her suicides are fake Daddy only stares into the distance There's only so much more that he can take Many miles away something crawls from the slime At the bottom of a dark Scottish lake"

"Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance He knows that something somewhere has to break He sees the family home now, looming in his headlights The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache Many miles away there's a shadow on the door Of a cottage on the shore Of a dark Scottish lake"

"The viola is the saddest of all instruments."

"I learn from thinking about the future, what hasn't been done yet. That's kind of my constant obsession."

"The avant-garde makes more sense to me."

"I'm content with making records, but I don't want to be doing the same thing all the time."

"The value of having a computer, to me, is that it'll remember everything you do. It's a databank."

"If you're all loaded up on love, you haven't got anywhere else to go."

"The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience."

"When somebody grabs a movement, you're kind of locked into it. It's all par for the course."

"Being a living legend is such a precarious livelihood. It’s like being a bar of soap in a shower which doesn’t have any water in it."

"I use cracks on the sidewalk to walk down the street. I'd always walk on the lines. I never take anything but a calculated risk, and do it because it gives me a sense of identity. Fear is a man's best friend."

"I am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll."

"I'm bent on proving that you can make living as musician and not die young and crazy like Mozart."

"I only hope that one day John will be recognized as … the Beethoven or something of his day. He knows so much about music, he's such a great musician. He's completely mad - but that's because he's Welsh."

"John Cale is fantastic, and he made the sound of the Velvet Underground."

"Never knew whether John Cale wanted to be Elvis Presley, Frankenstein's creature or the young Chopin."

"John Cale is a f*cking elitist. He did not like the people he was playing for. He's Welsh, and they're all nasty bastards."

"I’m very lucky. I have terrific parents, but some kids have a really rotten time growing up and we should do all that we can to make their lives happier and more secure."

"You used to get people writing in to the Liverpool Echo saying, ‘Who is this Martian walking round town?’ I used to get battered. Going out for lunch was like running the gauntlet."

"Showbiz is a very strange thing, I’ve got a love-hate relationship with that. In Liverpool your mates say, ‘You’re there, Holly, you’re there’ but they only see the end product, not what that entails."

"We are here to stir things up. Even people that hate us have to admit that we’ve already succeeded in doing that. Love Frankie or hate it - that’s what we want - a strong reaction."

"When Frankie Goes To Hollywood were still going strong, we made a point of being as Spinal Tap as possible. Yes, we had food fights. Yes, items were thrown out of hotel windows. But one childish prank I liked at the time was when we stayed in those really posh hotels where, at night, you could put your shoes out and in the morning they’ve been cleaned. We amused ourselves by roaming the corridors at night and having a crap in each pair of shoes we found. We even made bets: whoever filled the most shoes, won."

"Often the raw ideas like ‘Relax’ and ‘Rage Hard’ - are the best. ‘Rage Hard’ just happened. There was little conscious effort."

"Coming back doing interviews is weird. It’s like an actor who takes a year off and just goes home, settles down, does some gardening, wakes up in the morning, worries about what to have for breakfast, then suddenly you’re plonked back in the middle of it all."

"I do sometimes write songs that don’t seem right for Frankie so they get filed away. But don’t worry - anything good will be used. I’m not that gifted that I can afford to throw away any good stuff."

"I got great voice training in St. Mary’s Church, Wavertree, in Liverpool, when I was a lad. Dressing up in cassocks was all part of the fun. I used to earn sixpence a week and although I don’t go to church very much any more, 'Once In Royal David’s City' is still my favourite hymn."

"[I was] a little boy with a patch over one eye, who sang and danced along the street. I had what’s called a lazy eye, so I had to wear the patch. You tend to be a prodded kind of kid when you look like that, but it makes you much stronger in the end."

"I was in Big In Japan between '77 and '78. Then I went solo, releasing a couple of singles. Then I joined the Dancing Girls who turned into the Sons Of Egypt who were then whittled down into Frankie Goes To Hollywood."

"The name Holly was given me by a girl called Yvonne Petrovitch because of the Andy Warhol connection with the transvestite Holly Woodlawn."

"Dad wasn’t there much cos he had three or four jobs. First he was away at sea, later on he worked as an insurance salesman in the day and on a building site in the evening."

"He was a skinhead and I thought, ‘Oooh! He’s weird!’ He had this blond skinhead cut with ‘Psycho’ sprayed in black on his head. I hated that. He was wild but he’s not any more. He’s been tamed by age."

"Paul and Holly would rather hang out in the Café Tabac or the Armadillo Tea Rooms where everyone sits around going 'Oh, Andy Warhol, yah', pretending it’s London. [instead of the burger joint where the interview is taking place]"

"I voted last week, and everything I voted for was defeated. I voted for less police station money and against adding more courtrooms. The guy I voted for, a congressman, lost big time because he's totally anti-military. He wanted to cut the CIA budget! He's really cool. But he lost."

"America is a fucking police state."

"Did you know that the biggest—you know, the biggest star in the univer—in the whole galaxy/universe is as big as an atom is small? Did you know that? Isn't that wild? That's more pothead philosophy."

"People standing on escalators! And that is a testimony to human laziness! I mean, the guy who invented the escalator is just, probably, kicking himself in the ass. Do you think the guy made the escalator so people—and they're made like stairs—just so people stand on it so you go up and down? You're supposed to walk on 'em so you get there faster. You know? And then people stand on there. So every time Im on an escalator, I'm just like, "Excuse me, pardon me, excuse me, pardon me…." You know? That's my pet peeve, right there. And I'm gonna do something about it, and I'm urging you to do something about it! Write your congressman, get a group together, get together, and—I think we can do something about this."

"I do feel like, kinda like a misfit; usually I feel, inside, I'm a misfit. Like, I don't really watch sports, or a lot of…"

"It seems like our politics is so old, like, it almost seems like turning on the t.v. and there's ABC and CBS and NBC, and, y'know, there's like one newspaper in town, and so they're all pushing things on us, and that's all going away."

"Nick Gillespie: So, um, how do you self-describe politically? Krist Novoselic: I'm a, what, an anarcho-capitalist socialist…I don't know…I'm kinda a moderate, I think I'm moderate. Nick Gillespie: So you're an anarcho-capitalist socialist moderate. Krist Novoselic: I mean I'm a gun-owning pacifist, so there you go. I'm an anarcho-socialist—you know what I mean? Nick Gillespie: Anarcho-socialist— Krist Novoselic: —capitalist— Nick Gillespie: —capitalist, gun-toting… Krist Novoselic: Yeah, it's just like I, y'know, I just tryin'a, tryin'a make it work in this world and...basically I'm just a small-D democrat."

"Well, I think it just goes back to the values that I grew up with in the punk rock world because it was this decentralised world, and so we just made our own way—like we'd be antigovernment or, you know—but we really didn't complain a lot; we were more action-oriented, like, people were publishing fanzines, we were setting up shows, we were getting in vans and touring around, and we were associating with other people, so…y'know, I just like that idea."

"I don't think that corporations are these big bogeymen that a lot of people paint them to be."

"A corporation is a group of people, and if you want to come together for profit or nonprofit, that's your business—whatever you want to do."

"Yeah, I was a Democrat for about four or five years—active Democrat—and I thought I could reform the party; maybe I wasn't going about it right, maybe somebody can and somebody will, y'know? But I don't see it. It's just a top-down structure, it's a soft-money conduit, and, y'know, and like Nancy Pelosi, she's gonna lose the election again, and it's just like, what's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing—wrong, wrong thing—over and over again. Republicans, they have a real big demographic problem, because they're the party of old white people, and they're not reaching out to folks."

"Well, it was just—it seemed like it was violence, and, like, 'cause I went by some of the stores that, like, I don't really eat at McDonald's, y'know, but a lot of people do, and so there are these people who want, y'know, they're-they're socialists but they hate people, y'know, so they go trash the McDonald's, and I just think it was just reckless violence, and they weren't tryin'a accomplish anything, and they said—he was writing something on the wall, some kind of graffiti that was just stupid and cliché, and I said, "Hey, how would you like if someone did that to your house?" and he yelled back, "Fuck you!" and these other people started yelling "Fuck you!" at me; I'm, like, "Oh," like "I'm in trouble.""

"Globalisation is a great thing, and the genie's out of the bottle; it's called the Information Revolution. It has a promise to bring opportunity and information to all corners of the world. It's a wonderful thing."

"If you hear a song you like, start dancing. That's what I do, I'll just start dancing, and that's it. That's all there is to it."

"We weren't really interested in those bands; we were—because we came out of this subterranean scene. And then Nirvana breaks big, and it's just diametrically opposite: we have, like, facial hair, and just, kind of, logger shirts, but we're all, like, "sensitive" and "feminine"—you know what I mean?"

"I own guns. I think they're a good tool to have out in the country, and I should be able to protect my home and my family."

"I like my guns. Yeah, because it just makes me more comfortable."

"I don't really like his [Ted Nugent's] reactionary politics. He's a lot like the people on the left, you know what I mean?"

"I hope no one thinks we really sniff glue. I stopped when I was eight."

"I got tired of the Ramones around the time I quit and I really got into rap. I thought it was the new punk rock."

"Around 16 or 17 years old, I started finding out about some of the animal cruelty things, and ethically it just didn't make sense to me to keep eating meat, so eventually I stopped. … I was watching an HBO special about eating habits and different cultures, and they actually showed in China how people eat cats, and I'm really fond of cats, and I just happened to be sitting on the couch with my cat, and once I saw that, it just put everything in perspective. If I wouldn't eat my cat what's the difference between eating a cat or a cow? If certain animals are considered lesser than, so are certain people and that's not really fair. And the root of that is to consider life on equal terms across the board."

"I went vegetarian when I was about… 8 years old. One day I cut this piece of meat open and blood came out of it, and I realized, I asked my mother, “Where did this come from?,” and she said, “From animals,” and that was it."

"I’ve grown up with animals in the house, I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters, and all of us had cats, dogs, mice, chickens, frogs, tortoises, so they’ve always been a big part of my life. My dog, Scamp, was my best friend when I was growing up, and he was just as much a brother to me as my human brothers. Someone threw acid on him, and he almost died, but my parents spent their life savings having him treated. It appalled me that people could be so cruel, and ever since I have stuck up for animals. It is something I can be active in, unlike trying to figure out the appalling things humans do to each other."

"Ronnie was so enthusiastic, and he could play instruments which Ozzy couldn't play, so it was easy to communicate with him, and for him to communicate musically with us. That enthusiasm gives us all a kick up the bum."

"In the hard rock and heavy metal world, Butler is a downright god. Known for his early use of the wah-wah pedal and down-tuning his instrument (which would become a favorite technique among grunge guitarists and bass players), Butler is one of the most celebrated bassists within the genre. Butler, who was also the primary lyricist in Black Sabbath, has been claimed by such greats as Steve Harris, Billy Sheehan, and Jason Newstead when it comes to posing as an influential figure. Butler’s performance on the Sabbath classic "Paranoid" holds the whole song together."

"Diet for a New America let me in on the truth that I kind of knew but didn't want to think about—about how animals are processed for food for human consumption. … Some of the most disgusting things you'll see is when corporations feed people, because they're bottom-line-minded. In that situation I think that respect for life is forgotten. … Think for yourself, think about what you eat, and try a little compassion."

"Solo voy con mi pena Sola va mi condena Correr es mi destino Para burlar la ley Perdido en el corazón De la grande Babylon Me dicen el clandestino Por no llevar papel Pa' una ciudad del norte Yo me fui a trabajar Mi vida la dejé Entre Ceuta y Gibraltar Soy una raya en el mar Fantasma en la ciudad Mi vida va prohibida Dice la autoridad"

"Me llaman el desaparecido Que cuando llega ya se ha ido Volando vengo, volando voy Deprisa, deprisa a rumbo perdido Cuando me buscan nunca estoy Cuando me encuentran yo no soy El que está enfrente porque ya Me fui corriendo más allá Me dicen el desaparecido Fantasma que nunca está Me dicen el desagradecido Pero esa no es la verdad Yo llevo en el cuerpo un dolor Que no me deja respirar Llevo en el cuerpo una condena Que siempre me echa a caminar"

"Mentira la que manda Mentira comanda"

"Todo es mentira en este mundo Todo es mentira la verdad Todo es mentira yo me digo Todo es mentira ¿Por qué será?"

"A thought struck me: if my new album sounds this good on a walkman, what would sound like? A mere two years later I bought one and found out. However, on a train, a few years later still, I had negative eating a bacon sandwich and listening to a solo Ferry album, which turned me vegetarian."

"The image a lot of people have of me as detached, impassive, or remote is a persona that comes from years of being teased for every feeling I ever expressed."

"Your life is hard to change. But at the same time, I've also always felt that I'm the same person now as I was at five, so I've been sort of reaching out to that too, in a way."

"I don’t, really. I mean, the one thing is more women playing music. That allows you to have different personalities, so it kind of cuts through the clichés about how women are perceived. But I don’t really think things in the mainstream have changed so much. In the underground, it seems like there’s a lot more women involved in the scene, which mostly comes out of male record collectors, so it was surprising in the late ’80s to start seeing more girls and women involved with experimental music as that scene grew. That’s pretty cool.”"

"I don't wanna think that I'm influential or an icon or blah blah blah blah...Ultimately, I feel most confident when I'm just working. Thinking about ideas. That's how I'm most comfortable. Or performing in a group situation."

"Well, it sort of bothers me that if a man is doing it, then it's fine. Like, if a woman had Bob Dylan's voice, how far would she have gotten? Or Leonard Cohen? And men can get away with saying more things that are—I don't know, it's kind of like, everyone could sit around and pat each other on the back. And that's not very interesting."

"I never think of myself as famous anyway, like, if anything, it’s barely famous."

"I like a certain amount of tension in music…I like the kind of music that maybe makes you think about the status quo."

"It was the tip of the iceberg…There’s some unseen wall of faceless men that I have to climb over…as if on a mission."

"If people are listening, you can feel this intense concentration, and it builds a level of trust…I can be vulnerable in a way that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to be if I was just talking. There’s something about music and electricity and the free-flowing, less-contained aspect – it’s like being in the ocean. What’s the inside and what’s outside?"

"When I was growing up in the seventies, there were more open spaces. There weren't McMansions really. L.A. always had an interesting array of architecture in the houses. Like one would be a ranch house, another could be a Tudor house. It is fitting that there are all these different styles that almost were predetermined by L.A. being a place where different people moved."

"There’s two sides of the coin: One where people don't expect you to do anything and won't let you do anything because they think you don't know how, and then the other side is when you're fucking up but they won't tell you because you're a girl. Then you don’t learn."

"…There's no secret, no shortcut. Once you accept that being a writer or a creator is just really hard and takes a lot of hours of slogging through crappy first drafts, you just keep producing, and then you turn around and it's done. That's the magic."

"I want to have a beneficial effect on your physiology, but it’s not my business what happens after that…It’s my gift to you."

"Alchemy and magic are about how mundane, benign, and abundant materials can have an effect that is greater than the sum of their parts. To me, creativity is alchemy."

"To see brown bodies in this environment was exciting to me…Rural upstate New York could be anywhere in middle America…The parents being from Brooklyn, and Pop having Puerto Rican heritage, and the mom being white, makes it a quintessential American story."

"Television is art by committee…I’m lucky to have worked on some really interesting shows, but in film, you’re there to fulfill the director’s vision. If you get to work with great directors, you become a vehicle for that work."

"Richie, when all is said and done, is a romantic lead. There’s not a lot of romantic leads out there for Latino actors, and it allowed the industry to sort of see me as an everyman…"

"I never saw [Paps] as a bad guy, that’s the kind of work that I’m drawn to, stuff that’s not black or white but sits in a grey zone, where you’re not sure how to feel about things. I think that’s life."

"There is no nurturing of talent [in the music industry]. No one wants artists to grow and develop. Everyone is afraid of being fired and they didn't move with the digital age. The music industry had the power to move with the digital age, but they didn't do it and it was the biggest mistake they ever made. It fucked them really bad. And they waste so much money! It's ridiculous, they don't use it wisely. There are a lot of uncreative people in a creative industry. Most of them want to keep their jobs and don't know how to be innovative."

"My advice to a young artist is don't sign a deal. Know that there are other options out there. Because the power is taken away from you. I was 18 when I signed my record deal and it was all these older men who didn't give a fuck about my mental health and they worked me like a donkey. They're always happy to take the money, but when I experimented and changed direction musically – which every artist should be able to do – I was dropped immediately. But they're still happy to collect the cash from my first record now."

"'Females of all description' is not a music genre. It's sexist. [There would] never be a 'males of all description' section because the rest of the shop and all other music genres are considered male. Female is not a genre. Don't categorise my sex."

"The production of farming all animals is damaging the planet. The feed and grain that these animals consume, the toxins that come from farming, what it's doing to the land and the air, how we're messing with these animals' natural habitats, behaviors, patterns, their health and ecosystems. My favourite thing about being vegan is honestly that it's the most kind way to live. It gives me a sense of peace and self-worth. I feel like everything is better for me mentally. Physically I feel stronger and cleaner inside, with no hormones and toxins of a living thing being processed by my body. I feel so healthy. More focused and energized."

"Real sexiness is about confidence, intelligence, mystery, art and passion."

"I would never say "I'm straight, I'm bisexual, I'm gay". I feel like I will fall in love with a human being for who they are. I'm not afraid to say I've been attracted to a woman before and I've kissed girls before and been in love with them before. I've never really had a girlfriend or anything and I would never say I'm anything, really. I don't have an identity in that way."

"All right, stop, collaborate and listen."

"If there was a problem, yo I'll solve it — check out the hook while my DJ revolves it."

"Anything less than the best is a felony."

"To the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal."

"As an artist, I don’t like being able to be seen…If you’re having difficulty getting a part, it adds to the tension when the assistant engineer, engineer, producer and producer’s wife are hanging out. With the School-house, my engineer’s in the control room, and I could be doing vocals while stretching my T-shirt over my head and it wouldn’t matter. Everyone who’s worked here has gotten used to this nonvisual communication and actually found it to be advantageous. That’s what home studios are about — that funky thing."

"Creativity is an interesting thing…You can sit back, have a glass of wine, watch some television…and get a terrific idea of what you want to do…The great thing about being at home is that as soon as you get an idea you can put a mike at the piano and record it. That way you don’t lose the vibes, and you don’t have to worry about finishing before the studio’s next booking arrives…”"

"I'm the least technical person I've ever met...I hate anything with digital numbers on it. I just go by instinct. It's the same with a new AMS as it is with a synthesizer for me. I never read manuals. I just sit down with the thing for a couple of days and fiddle with the knobs until I figure out what it can do. And get what I like out of it. When it comes to producing too I just go for something that will jump off the record and into people's heads. Again, it's a question of what feels right. I try to make records which have a point of view to express and so you always have to concentrate upon the voice. When we did my album we tried very hard to keep the sort of R'n'B danceability in the vocals you'd expect from a D Train or Gloria Gaynor, but still keeping that Rock conviction you get from Foreigner."

"The bass suit was actually one of the first cordless guitars in existence, and I invented it. It was built right into this silver bodysuit so it looked as though the bass was coming out of my body, and the volume and tone knobs were on the sleeve...When it worked it was great, but the tunings were a little strange, plus I can’t tell you how many times I got shocked. It wound up being just one more thing that we had to worry about on tour: ‘Well, I wonder if this will work tonight.’ After a while I couldn’t stand wearing it anymore so I gave it up."

"In my mind, recognition has never been something to be obtained…I’m happy that more people appreciate what I’m doing, and are hearing my music. When I write, I communicate my own message, my own feelings and passion. I’m glad that they are being accepted."

"Sure. It does lean more towards the industry standard rather than towards my roots. But I meant it to be that way for a reason. To begin with this is my first album in about three years and my first for a new label. So I wanted the album to have the same basic listenability throughout and I wanted the record company to feel that they could hear four or five potential singles on it. Tracks that would work on the radio. Because that was what I was aiming for, I had to make sure that each song would capture an exact feeling which would get across to the most number of people. I always like to make records like that. I hate records where all the musicians or the artiste are really saying is 'Dig Me!' You can lose a lot of your potential audience by making self-indulgent statements. Unless, of course, you're so neat and groovy that people say 'Wow Man! Come All Over Me!'. Now I think I am pretty neat and groovy, but I prefer to make the sort of records which will make people think about themselves, not about me. Pop music shouldn't really express the innermost thoughts of the artiste as much as giving the listeners a feeling of exuberance or pain or power or whatever. To give them a sense of their own selves. Once you start making music with that sort of end in mind, you realise that you have to make it less jagged and more compartmentalised. And so the reason I Can Dream About You sounds maybe as Industry Standard as it does is because it was designed to get through to as many different sorts of people as possible. And that isn't necessarily a negative factor."

"...People get confused because they want the boxes your talent comes in to be always the same shape and the same colour. If you don't do that then people lose track of who you are. They say 'Oh, he doesn't know himself'. But I know who I am. The energy is the same, the expression is the same and the work diligence is the same. Always. It's just that sometimes it all comes in different boxes and different colours. It may be weird to some people but it surely doesn't bother me."

"It seemed to be a natural period when I wanted to stop doing pop records; it came with a falling-out between my record company and me...There was a hole in my career. Instead of a valley, it became a peak to me. I decided I was going to do something that I hadn’t really had time to do."

"I started reading books about the subconscious mind and intuitiveness, and what makes people tick when they hear songs that excite them, make them feel romantic or melancholy. I was in and out of bookstores and libraries. I read a lot of texts, including on primitive man and the workings of the way we emotionally react to things. It wasn’t scholarly or scientific. I read and skimmed and when I thought something was nonsense, I just moved on…"

"In a lot of ways this music is soothing. I think there’s a place for music that is peaceful and soulful unto the spirit. After plane bombings, AIDS and everything that has come upon us in this decade, I think we can use a little solace and reflection."

"I don’t necessarily do music for the pure art sake of my own self-expression, which is why a lot of people make music—to express themselves. I really feel that the work I do, be it writing, singing or producing, I do in order to help communicate feelings to other people, hoping they might feel the same things, that they somehow relate to it or get an experience from it that they can share with themselves."

"The reality of Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes is here, only if he were around now, he’d say “Now it’s five.” We’re going so fast, we don’t know what’s going on inside anymore. We’re becoming external, not feeling anything."

"I have a bit of anger about some things going on in the world that I know I want to sing about. I’ve never done that on a solo album before; they’ve been mostly about romance and relationships…The concept is Dan Hartman, so whatever’s happening to me when I begin to put out the feelings will be what the album is about. Whether I’m in love, out of love, or the next plane blows up…whatever, I just want to stay creative and hopefully keep people thinking and feeling…At least feel something."

"I think James Brown has made a lot of good records (in recent years)…But it was that purist James Brown thing that he was doing in the beginning and people won’t let him do that anymore because time marches on…That stuff is classic to me, but other people get bored with it. The challenge is to present something that is him, yet sounds fresh to listeners. That’s usually hard for (a veteran artist) to do. It helps to have someone step in from outside…I am proud of what we did on the album. I think it does present a contemporary James Brown. It’s not candy-coated. It has a lot of statement and a lot of heart."

"When you get into the areas of eroticism, politics, and belligerency, you have to be careful. Some of it will get out. Both Charlie and I have slanted minds. If “Relax” or “Sugar Walls" can be hits, there is a place for that kind of stuff, too. It's fun and interesting to write about that. Or with politics: Third World people own the bomb. That's probably where the nuclear war will start. They have nothing to lose. You can write about that. It'll be just another record from a romantic cynic."

"They said the scene was going to be patriotic, with the flag and Apollo fighting the Russian, and it had to be pro-American. We said we didn’t really want to go flag waving. We just wanted to have a good time, write a funky number and sing about America."

"I realize all you need to do is do it. I think we all restrict ourselves in our lives from doing things. We have choices and alternatives."

"I started producing before I even joined the Legends—around 1962... I produced some local R&B, rock and gospel acts at Baldwin Sound in Mechanicsburg [Pennsylvania]. People would hear what I'd done on someone else's record and call me up and ask if I'd produce them, too. I even wrote and recorded an advertising jingle for Sutliff Chevrolet out on Paxton Street when I was 16. So it's always been something that I could fall back on throughout my career--to keep my mind going, to keep me musically inspired, and to keep me moving without having to make statements of my own…"

"Dan was the first person I enlisted for The Edgar Winter Group. It was a huge talent search; I listened to hundreds of demo tapes to choose talented people for what I wanted to be the quintessential American rock band...The thing that I loved about Dan was that he had a youthful innocence and enthusiasm. He loved commercial music, and he didn’t have to try to be commercial. He had a natural ability to come up with simple ideas that were never overdone...he was originally a guitarist...I had to talk him into playing bass. He was a multi-instrumentalist like myself, but he was not a virtuoso player. Yet he would always find the right part to complement the song. Rock solid, and with the right groove. As well as being a great songwriter, he knew what to play and when to play it."

"Dan always liked to have a lyric before he wrote a melody and created a track. He reasoned that he needed to know the essence of the song in order to inspire his creative process. As a result, we would discuss an idea and I would then write lyrics. Often, I would throw out some lines or titles before proceeding to ensure that Dan agreed on the direction. If he concurred then I would go on to complete a lyric. Dan was very tough and uncensored in his assessments but our dynamics allowed for this. Being satisfied with the final work was all that mattered. However, because of his unvarnished critiques, I developed a system wherein I would write many alternative lyrics so that Dan could have choices."

"...This guy was so multi-talented. We would wake up and come down to the den and hear somebody playing like Hendrix, with the amp low-tuned. He could play like Hendrix. And then he’d sit down at the piano and play all these Elton John songs. He loved the Philadelphia Soul — that’s why you can hear it in “I Can Dream About You.” He loved The Spinners, and all those guys. He was like a sponge; he soaked up all those influences. And it was amazing to see the guy be such a virtuoso at every instrument — singing, playing, producing, piano, guitar..."

"Working with Dan was like going to an institute of higher learning in pursuit of a PhD in the art of collaboration. Before this, I had been the lead singer in bands and expected to write the lyrics, and it had been expected for those lyrics to express my experience and worldview. That had been my job, and, for the most part, no collaboration had been necessary...which opinion was better or worse did not enter into the dynamic, because we both understood that our sensibilities were not the same, and that, left alone, either of our opinions might or might not have worked, but the point of the collaboration was to create a work that was Hartman and Midnight, not Hartman alone or Midnight alone..."

"Somebody asked him to write a song for Aretha. You would get a demo that sounded like, you know, Aretha! If you asked him to write a song for Barry White, you’d get a demo that sounded like Barry White. He was brilliant at that."

"It doesn’t matter if radio thinks it’s a dying genre, or if there are people who thinks it sounds like ‘this or this or that’. If you write a good song, and it’s pop-punk, people will like it; because pop-punk doesn’t really mean a whole lot: it just means that it’s got that pop catchiness to it, but it’s got that punk energy and speed, and stuff that makes you want to jump up and down or drive a car real fast; and that’s something that will never get old. So, I love having that direction, and just being able to say, “let’s focus on writing some good songs,” and we produce them the way Simple Plan should and would; and that’s our target."

"I think a lot of times in our adult lives, we either block out or straight-up forget about the challenges of being a kid. We know it's all going to work out, but when you're a kid in that moment, it feels like the whole world is coming down on you. I'm going to try to look back and remember that when my kids get in those situations."

"It all starts with a good song. You can look cool and work hard, but that won’t be enough. People will get into your coolness once they like the song. That’s when people want to find out more about an artist."

"Unless you’re an experimental metal band by nature, people don’t really want that experimentation, I don’t think. They want us to try and out-do what we’ve done – I don’t think people want us to stand still and put out the same album again and again but I think what they want is something stylistically consistent and hopefully even a little better than the last album. When bands go too far away from their style it’s generally not well received in the metal community. Consistency is a big part of our genre."

"With Cannibal Corpse, it’s always a ‘song first’ kind of thing for me. Some of the side projects I’ve done have allowed me to stretch out a little bit more [in terms of style], but Cannibal is really about being a big, heavy rhythm machine, and stepping out too much might detract from that."

"The shed we rented smelled like rat shit and it was hotter than f–k. We had an air conditioner that didn’t do shit and we’d be totally soaked by the time we were done practicing. But we were determined."

"This kind of music helps people get through negative things. I mean, you're taking something negative and turning it into something positive by making it into music -- instead of actually going out and doing something violent. There's plenty of ways to turn things around, and that is what death metal did for me. [...] It got me through alot of negative things in my life -- it was always there for me."

"If you really saw someone get their brains bashed in right in front of you, I think it would have a pretty dramatic impact [...] you'd react to it, no matter how many movies you've watched or how much gore metal you've listened to [...] even though we've got crazy entertainment now, our social realities are actually a bit more civilized than they were back then [...] we're not hanging people or whipping them in the street and I think that's positive improvement for any society."

"I couldn’t hear the bass in a lot of the thrash [metal] I was listening to. It seemed like the bass was doing exactly what the rhythm guitar was doing, so that’s what I tried to do. I think that shaped my righthand technique, having to learn how to play the really fast stuff with three fingers. I didn’t realize a lot of these guys were cutting things in half [playing half the notes] or doing something a little different. I’ve always played fingerstyle since we got Cannibal going, just trying to keep up with the guitar players. In thrash, there’s not as much of a bass–drummer connection as there is a bass–guitar connection—at least I didn’t see it that way in the beginning. [...] When I started, I played fingerstyle with two fingers, and not very fast. I could get going to a respectable speed, but not something crazy like Jeff Berlin or Juan Alderete. But then we did a show with Cynic and Malevolent Creation. Cynic’s bass player, Tony Choy, played with three fingers, and Malevolent Creation’s bassist plucked with four. I said, “I have to be able to keep up, and I’m not going to use a pick. I have to be able to figure out how to do it with my fingers. [...] Around that same time, I was listening to Sadus a lot, which is the band that Steve DiGiorgio originally came from. I could tell the bass was played fingerstyle, and it was really fast. I managed to track down Steve’s phone number, so I called him up and asked, “Dude, how do you do that?” He explained his technique, which was going from the ring finger to the middle to the index back to the middle—there’s your four notes. I was very grateful, and we’ve been friends ever since. I tried to learn that way and got it down, but as I would start to drift off in doing muscle-memory practice, my technique would start to fall into a different technique. That was the one that I described in the book, where it ends up being a 12-note cycle. You’re basically playing a triplet pattern, but it ends up feeling like straight 16th-notes. So Steve’s tip helped get me started, but I ended up developing my own thing."

"[Learning music theory] can spur your creativity. I’ve found that the guys who don’t know as much theory tend to write things in 4/4 most of the time. The guys who know theory are the ones who end up experimenting more and having music that sounds a little more out there, which I like. The more you know, the more you can mess around."

"People who don’t know this music think it’s just a bunch of noise and it’s really easy to play. That’s totally untrue. You may not like it, but death metal is really complex. You have to have a really fine-tuned ear to appreciate it and a lot of the guys in these bands are incredible musicians."

"Even though we record to Pro Tools with a click track, I think we’ve learned how to use it in a way where everything still sounds organic. I feel like we managed to capture an old school death metal vibe. It doesn’t sound like one of those modern metal productions where everything is overly precise."

"The part is all on the C# string [E tuned down a minor 3rd], so it’s really easy to keep it going. Things get a little trickier when you start skipping strings. I didn’t think it was necessary for the part to make it harder than it needed to be, so I kept it all on the C# string so I could pedal along nicely. I kept it at a tempo where I can comfortably play 16th-notes, which is 172 beats per minute. It’s still fast, but once I start getting past 180 BPM, it gets tough."

"We saw that a lot of bands in Florida seemed to have more of a darker, anti-religion thing going on, so we decided to do the gore thing with the art and lyrics."

"It got to the point where it entered global politics. That's something I never imagined, and I never heard [Senator] actually say these words, but he said this about us: "[Cannibal Corpse] is deplorable. They have a song about having sex with a severed head." I wish I could have heard him say that shit. I'd love that sound bite."

"Most Western music is people singing from the heart — singing to a girlfriend, so a lot of people are freaked out by our songs [...] But our lyrics are just stories. They’re just written to be as gross and disgusting as we could make them. At night we’d get a case of beer and watch gory horror movies. [...] We just play extreme music so we figured we needed extreme lyrics."

"We do not mind writing hooks, as long as they are super heavy hooks, you know what I mean? We want the songs to be memorable, as long as there is no sacrifice in the level of heaviness. [...] And those two things should not have to be exclusive. I think you can have really catchy things that are all really heavy. I mean if we can manage to write some lyrics that are going to make you want to remember them and sing along to them each time they come around, then mission accomplished I think right?"

"His wife’s head breaks his jaw Bruised flesh becoming raw"

"Awake, I’m being disembowelled Rotation pulling out the guts Tortured by this tool Intestines on the spool"

"Alex has always been 100 percent tech, using his finger trying to get all five going. He was driven as a musician. I've never met anyone as driven as Alex when it comes to trying to learn an instrument. That's for real, man. He was always trying to outdo guys he thought were amazing. He pushed himself. On Tomb, Alex became more vocal, as far as being a songwriter and being involved in the recording process. He really got on Scott Burn's nerves. He wanted the bass turned up. Scott walked out of the room a couple of times. Alex was pushing Scott to the limit as far as how loud the bass should go. That went on into the next album, The Bleeding, too."

"I really look up to Alex when I’m mixing an album. I just love the way his bass sounds."

"When you don't have the original singer, then you are the official cover band. You wanna make yourself look even more stupid than you already do, by all means, go ahead. [...] We've done wondrous things since their departure — we don't have the problems of canceled tours and missed performances and things like that. This thing runs smooth, everybody gets along, everybody's happy, there's no ill will. It's just like a bad... When you're in a bad marriage, it just ain't working out. So people have to go on their way."

"Those two are a couple of idiots, man. I hate Eric and Brian Hoffman more than anything in this world, and I will not rest until I put shit straight with the fans. Up 'til now, everybody thinks I kicked them out of the band, but nobody kicked anybody out. They quit on their own, and I wanna set the record straight in regard to those two fuckin' pricks. [...] It's real simple: Eric Hoffman has a fucking steroid problem, and he's bi-polar. Brian married some young broad who's running his life for him. What initially happened is that when our publishing deal ended with Roadrunner, and our new deal started with Earache, we put them on notice that our publishing was no longer gonan be split four ways — it's gonna be based on who writes what. That's the industry standard. Brian writes one song for the album, Eric writes two songs and they wanna get paid for all the songs Steve [Asheim, drums] wrote. That's not fuckin' fair. And I wrote all the lyrics, so I'm entitled to 50% of the publishing. Why should I give those two money? They've been losing thousands of dollars for me and Steve for ten years now. If it was one of those things where they showed up and did their jobs, we wouldn't have a fucking problem. That's why the deal we signed [with Roadrunner] in '90 was set up like that. Back then, everybody wrote and contributed and it was a fuckin' group effort. But now me and Steve are the Lennon and McCartney of the band, doing all the writing, and those two wanna get paid for our hard work. Fuck that. [...] When they got their first publishing checks and didn't get paid for all the songs me and Steve wrote, they fucking quit. And now we gotta deal with Eric threatening Steve, driving to his house and screaming outside his window at 10:30 at night, making threatening phone calls, talking shit on Blabbermouth about Steve's dad dying, and all this other bullshit. Eric knows better than to come over here, though — he knows I shoot first and ask questions later."

"Slipknot: ‘Oh we’re going to take you guys out man, we’re going to take you guys out dude.’ Yeah, blow me. That’s what I say to you. F—ing blow me Corey Taylor and all you f-gs. OK. ‘Oh we’re going to take Deicide out on tour with us and blah blah blah.’ Blowing air up our asses, back in the day. You know what, you never did a f—ing thing for us. You introduced us at a show once. Great, thanks. How about a f—ing tour? How about f—ing helping us out a little bit? I mean we’ve only been doing this for several years. You guys were like, ‘Dude you were what got me started.’ Well you know what, return the f—ing favor. You know what I mean?"

"Religion is a three-legged dog, and it’s on its way out. I think people know how to treat each other, and don’t need a book full of bullshit to tell them how to do it."

"When I was eight years old and forced against my will to participate in the Christmas play at the church my mother was a Sunday school teacher at, I was singing at the front of the church thinking, ‘How did I get myself into this shit?’"

"I was always referred to as ‘the evil little bastard’ in my family. I just fell into it, and it’s the persona I’ve had ever since I was a little kid, through school and through everything else. I don’t even really know why, but do I get off on raising eyebrows and ruffling feathers? Fuck yeah, I do! Fifty-six years old and I still love getting a reaction out of folks. Most kids rebel, and I wanted to fight the powers."

"I think I was only 22 when I burned the inverted cross into my forehead. The spirit moved me, man! To this day, I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking, but I knew that I had been christened Catholic as a child, and I felt that the best way to take care of that would be my symbolic way of taking that Catholic mark off of my skin. I’ve always been that kid in the picture who’s got that twisted look and the smile on his face, and when I got to an age where I could start being me, I just started being me. Now that my two sons are both grown and off in the world, I find myself back to being that guy again, the guy that branded the cross on his forehead."

"The way I look at is “who cares?” [laughter]. Who gives a fuck anymore? Does anybody even read the lyrics anymore? It’s like they’ll release the first SoundScan numbers and it’ll be like 2900 copies sold the first week, but there are like 50,000 downloads. Does anybody even read the packaging anymore? I was going to put in the album this time, “If anybody’s reading this, thanks for not ripping me off!"

"[Religion is] beaten into me, so I can’t sing about anything else. If I try to sing about other things, I draw a complete blank. I let the universe speak through me, and if I have to force it, it just won’t come."

"Neil Peart, I’ve seen an interview with him, and he felt uncomfortable in those situations, and I just feel the same way, man. I just don’t like being put in those positions where I’m sitting at a table and people are gawking at me like I’m in the Jim Rose Circus or something. I guess I’m just too real and too deep for that kind of shit. To me, I think it’s — pardon the expression — I think it’s a poser kind of thing. That’s for posers. And Steve’s like, ‘I feel the same way. I feel like I wanna climb out of my skin when I’m in those situations.’ And like I say, I’m just not into that kind of thing. ‘Cause I’m up there, if I’m wrangled into these things, I’m thinking to myself as I’m up there and everybody’s saying all the compliments and everything, and I think to myself, ‘Man, if they can only see me when I’m outside mowing my grass, washing the car and cleaning the bathroom. If they could only see me now.’ So that’s kind of how it makes me feel uncomfortable, ’cause I don’t think of myself like a rock star or anything like that. I just don’t put myself in that [frame of mind]. I can’t. I really don’t. I can’t relate. [...] I was having this conversation with the guys in the band the other day, ’cause we were talking about meet-and-greets and doing that kind of stuff. And I’m just not a fan of the whole charging fans for a signature. I give a fan a signature out of kindness of my heart, not because I wanna make money off of them. The fact that they’re a fan and they listen to our material… I know things are different — most people get [music] for free now — but I still can’t come to terms with that, to charge somebody for my signature, especially a fan… And it makes me feel kind of weird."

"Well, people don't understand that the album cover that we did, it was done with Photoshop and with some A.I., but it's a more modern version. It's like Legion — when I did the Legion album cover, computers were still fucking new. Nobody knew anything about three-dimensional artwork or any shit like that. And I was the first person to even fucking fuck with that when I designed the Legion album cover. Now I've been in the computers and all that shit since they all came about. So I may be ahead of a lot of people when it comes to computers. I have two iMacs and MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. So I'm a little versed with the whole computer age and in Photoshop and all that stuff and that. [...] I like to do something different and provocative. And I know the whole A.I. thing, everybody's [up in arms about it]… But it was meant to stir. People don't understand. It's a modernization of… It's a sign of the time that we're in. People just can't — their first [reaction] is, like, 'Oh, he's trying to put all of us artists out of work. And I'll be stuck drawing penises in men's bathrooms for the rest of my life.' So everybody's up in arms and thinking that this is the end of the fucking world. And it's really ridiculous, man. It's just a form of art and expression. So I think people should just really stop being ridiculous and accept it for what it is, man. It's a sign of the times. [...] But here's the thing, how hypocritical it is, because my art was being stolen [illegally downloaded] and stepped all over in the '90s. Metallica had seen it come and they tried to stop it. But all these wannabe mercenaries for artists and all these idiots out there, they were the same people right there stealing my art back then. So where were all you guys at to defend my art being stolen and taken advantage of? [...] So, all I did was just did an album cover, really, that just focused on the whole modernization of the modern time and, really, it's just a reflection of the age that we're in right now. I can't spend my days trying to explain this. I have a saying: I don't try to convince stupid is dumb and I don't try to convince dumb is stupid. So I just let it do its thing and piss people off. I have a great time with it. It's hilarious. Yeah, it is what it is, man. It's meant to stir the shit paddle, and that's what I do."

"I didn’t think playing shows with rotting meat as part of our set-up was gonna cause that much of a shitstorm. Within three shows of that stuff I had the authorities bearing down on me, so it was a very short-lived moment in Deicide history."

"As a parent, it really weirds me out when people bring their children and babies to the show. They’re like, ‘Sign my baby’s forehead!’ I’ve pretty much seen it all; from chicks squatting and pissing backstage to whipping out their tampon and throwing it at me."

"There should be a law that prevents you from getting married until after you’re 38! When we’re young, especially men, it’s in our blood to fuck up, and that means that when you get older you start to look back and go, ‘What the fuck was I thinking?"

"Years ago I had a fight with a redneck, and we were going until we were both basically so beat up that we couldn’t stand up any more. It was like nobody could win; we just kept beating each other until we both hobbled off! I’d just moved down to South Georgia from New York, and the biggest redneck in the bar decided to pick a fight – he was digging and digging at me until he could get a response, and he got one!"

""Dead by Dawn," as quoted by Jon Wiederhorn of"

"For Glen Benton, an artist whose public persona and music will forever be intertwined, [Deicide's self-titled album] was a bold statement that he was doing more than playing some unholy caricature."

"Glen Benton is a fucking character, and his unwavering dedication to shitting all over Christianity and everything its iron grip has wrought upon the world is not always the smartest or most nuanced approach, but you can’t argue he gets his point across."

"After what happened when Glen Benton fucking took scars royalties for 20 years and all Deicide merchandise, I will find you and hunt you down like the animal you are. I have no label and did my last album for the fans out of my own savings and will do it again with without label. I now pronounce curse on his hair piece Glen Michael Benton you will be history soon and Steve will hire new singer. Also remember this, I am Deicide. You are a disgusting individual that doesn’t care about anyone but [themself]. Glen your Amon, not now, you’re not good enough. I drew the logo [and] came up with the name. Unbelievable. I am Amon. Suck it Glen, we will meet again."

"He's just filled with disgust for Christian hypocrisy and things of that nature. He draws from personal experience, anger and resentment for his lyrical subject matter."

"We do various things to prepare to go into battle, and it involves some meditation and other practices that we feel like expressing from time to time. We've always been a very spiritual band, and we remain that way."

"It wasn’t about having or being part of a scene. [...] We believed in ourselves and our craft. We pulled ' out of thin air. That’s the result of us living on an island all by ourselves. We came up with something for ourselves that we wanted to do. It was about writing good songs, not about playing fast. Yeah, we like playing fast, and we happened to have a drummer who is capable of very high-speed coordination, so why not take advantage of it?"

"Grindcore is the bridge between thrash and death metal mixed with brutally fast hardcore. You take it and throw it all in a blender, hit puree and stand back."

"Our purpose is to spread fear and evil."

"I have heard Slayer's first and a few from bands such as Sodom, Destruction, Wimphammer / Celtic Compost, and I think they all suck. I don't even listen to black metal, death metal, satanic metal, or thrash metal at all. It's mostly crap."

"Hey, why do you sing with an English accent? I guess it’s too late to change it now."

"I don’t want to be stoned anymore."

"I woke up in my childhood bed wishing I was someone else feeling sorry for myself When I remembered someone’s kid is dead"

"The doctor put her hands over my liver She told me my resentment’s getting smaller"

"I was dressed for success But success, it never comes"

"It seems that Malkmus tinkered with words constantly, and that the final versions are those sung on the take that wound up in the can. [...] It's the way words sound and the way Malkmus sings them that gives his songs meaning."

"From the top of the ocean From the bottom of the sky Well, I get claustrophobic"

"I didn't move to the city The city moved to me And I want out desperately."

"I was in heaven I was in Hell Believe in neither But fear them as well."

"Brock has a knack for spinning the bleakness of late-stage capitalism into postmodern poetry, finding romance in trailer parks and truck stop bathrooms."

"The punk rock scene started to get a little stodgy, and a little bit demanding in terms of like laying down the parameters of what was ok to do. And that was not punk rock to us. I got off on doing whatever the fuck I wanna do, period."

"Defining hardcore is like defining falling in love -- definitions really miss the point. You don't need a definition to know if you're in love or not -- you just know it. You just feel real hardcore when you experience it."

"In high school, if you were playing any kind of music that wasn't dance, or just something that was really different—you know, rock, metal or hard rock, anything like that—then you needed to look like it. You needed to look like a bad dude, and we just looked like normal dudes....It wasn't about trying to impress everybody, because we looked at those types of people as weenies trying to do that stuff ... We just wore our normal stuff and we didn't really think about it. It just kind of happened that way and I think because we were searching for an extreme style, coupled with this no image, who-cares-what-we-look-like thing, then I think we fit in to that new movement that we discovered a little ways later, the whole Bay Area thrash scene."

"Chris just called me and said, “Hey, we need an emergency bass player. Do you want come jam?” So, I learned the songs, practiced with them a few times, and knocked out the album. I had history with Chris and a long history with Eric Cutler. We really knew each other. It was all smooth. I consider myself lucky to have been a part of Autopsy and all the history around them."

"It takes a special kind of musician to stand onstage with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham and hold their own. John Paul Jones is that musician twice over, primarily on bass but also on keys. Jonesy’s Jazz Bass is an integral part of the Led Zeppelin sound, with its thunderous harmonic overtones providing a solid bed for Page to go ham all over while also not getting lost underneath the almighty power of Bonham’s gloriously animalistic drumming style."

"Perhaps the most interesting and undoubtedly impressive aspect of Jones' run is the fact he's essentially had two careers. The first came with Led Zeppelin, where he was arguably the most unheralded member of the legendary rock outfit . When Led Zeppelin disbanded following drummer John Bonham's death, Jones ensured he kept his bass plugged in. Jones, whose professional career began as a technically sound session player capable of playing anything from blues to hard rock, had no trouble making a living while working with the likes of R.E.M, Foo Fighters, and Peter Gabriel in his post-Zeppelin world."

"I wanted to ring everyone and tell them I was number one but then I realised I didn’t have any friends."

"My daughter just delights in telling me that Ed Sheeran beats me all the time. She just keeps saying that if I was as good as Ed Sheeran I'd be happier."

"I’m not pretending the past was any good — I'm just saying the present is worse."

"God definitely created humans as the dregs, we have all the greed and the despicable acts. Humanity, worldwide, is now at its lowest ebb. Depressing, isn’t it, so let’s not get started on THAT."

"I often fantasise about going into the jungle. I’d like to go in there and be as miserable as possible and refuse to do any of the tasks and we’d all starve to death. And everyone would despise me. So on that level I quite fancy it.""

"Throughout the first year of the band I was only drinking Babycham; it’s so un-rock & roll! Then, as we were driving over the Yorkshire Dales or the Lancashire Moors, I just turned into a blubbing heap, I just wanted to go home and see my mum. I still feel like that a lot now, really.""

"There’s no problem mixing style with socialism - Fidel Castro was stylish!""

"A journalist in one of the Sunday papers called us ‘little trolls’, because we’re Welsh. Well, I’m 6ft 3in and I’m the sexiest rock star in the world."

"I could never write something like (Radiohead's) 'I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo'. I'd write something like 'I’m a cricketer, I’m boring, I’m a gardener, I'm a hoovering housewife'."

"The internet is the grandest illusion ever created. It makes people think they’re popular, they have loads of friends, they’re part of a community. And they actually have a voice. They don’t actually realise that like all of us, they’re completely fucked and powerless."

"One of the biggest corporate lies in history, up there with selling terrible mortgages."

"Not that I'd ever want one, and I fucking despise it. But why has he got a knighthood? It's Sir Nick Clegg, Head of Facebook Foreign Affairs. Can you think of a worse sentence at the moment than that?"

"Someone should build a bypass over this shithole."

"It was supposed to be a joke. As I was saying it I thought ‘This is going to be really funny’. Then this deathly silence descended on the place."

"Me and Richey can’t write music but we can write lyrics and look pretty tarty."

"It seemed a marriage made in heaven really. I found someone who believed in the same ideas as me, and was even worse musically."

"I still think they're really relevant and I still think as a kind of physical and internalised hatred and dissection of humanity, it's pretty untouchable."

"Michael Anthony’s minimalist bass style - for the most part root notes played in steady eighths - leaves plenty of sonic space for Eddie to experiment with."

"Younger generations might remember the song ["Roundabout" by Yes] as a meme. But no matter how you got to it, there's no denying that [it] is one of the most important rock pieces of all time. Just take a listen to that bass, performed by Chris Squire."

"In the world of progressive rock, Squire was a relative superstar, which is saying quite a lot. He co-founded legendary prog-rockers Yes, which he was part of, in some form, for almost a half-decade. Squire was known for having a melodic touch to his bass playing, which proved highly influential to many prog rock/metal bassists that followed."

"As far as where we’re going in the future, I think we’ve gone as far as we can with the ‘gods of speed’ thing. We’re starting to get into slower stuff, going for longer songs, as opposed to the blast aspect. Also, the noisy, industrial stuff is coming more to the forefront. If you’re familiar with our latest album [Harmony Corruption], I think you’ve got a good idea as to our new direction. We’re getting into real painful noise; I just want to annoy people at the moment."

"When it comes to the leader and true soul of Iron Maiden, it's Steve Harris' show. Sure, frontman Bruce Dickinson, or even beloved Eddie, might be "the face" of Iron Maiden, but Harris is the guy who makes the operation run. He’s the band's principal songwriter and one of the slickest, quickest bass players in hard rock and heavy metal history. Known for his "gallop" method of playing the instrument, Harris' work shines on Maiden classics like "The Trooper" and "Run to the Hills." Harris has cited Phil Lynott as one of his many bass influences."

"When it comes to characters within the world of music, Primus' Les Claypool is among the best. Quirky and eccentric, Claypool is one of the more versatile bassists. He slaps, taps, and wails while having a good time. Perhaps Claypool's shining moment is still his performance on the Primus classic "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver." In a well-told story, Claypool auditioned to be Metallica’s bass player following the aforementioned Cliff Burton’s death. However, the band thought he was simply too good for the job, and Claypool knew he would not be able to showcase his true talent."

"Affectionately known as "The Ox." It's never an easy task to single out the best on such a list, but when it comes to playing the bass, Entwistle takes the crown because he could do just about anything with the instrument. The Who’s sound had a wide and expansive range and seemed to change — often for the better — with the times. Entwistle was more than able to keep up and excel. His high-treble, high-volume sound was synonymous with the band's success. "Boris the Spider" and “My Wife” are just a couple of the stoic Entwistle’s major contributions to The Who’s legacy, while his underrated performance on "Won't Get Fooled Again" is a true hidden gem."

"In addition to being a legendary bass player, Graham is renowned for his baritone vocals. However, we're all about the bass, and Graham's contributions in that department are undeniably historical. Considered the inventor of the slap technique of bass playing, Graham opened the door to an innovative way of mastering the instrument. From there, the slap became a staple among funk, soul, and R&B bands. Graham was a key member of Sly and the Family Stone and fronted his own Graham Central Station. The Hall of Famer is also the uncle of popular rapper Drake."

"A multi-Grammy Award winner, Wooten has long been the backbone of the jazz-infused Bela Fleck and the Flecktones but worked with Clarke in the supergroup SMV. One of the most sought-after bassists in the world, Wooten also showcased his harder, edgier side while working with the metal group Nitro. Ridiculously talented on both the fretted and fretless bass, Wooten has also excelled while playing the double bass and even the cello. Truly one of the most gifted and appreciated musicians that should receive more mainstream recognition."

"While Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke were major innovators in the electric bass, Victor Wooten has been a vital pace-setter on the instrument with his virtuosic playing and his two-handed approach. From his work with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones in the early '90s to his solo releases over the last seventeen years, Wooten has shown he's clearly huge force in the electric bass. His outstanding 1996 debut, A Show of Hands, is just one document of just how far Wooten can take the bass."

"Stanley Clarke has seemingly done it all and then some during his exceptional career as a bassist. Perhaps most noted for his jazz playing, Clarke also shined on the rock side, notably in the late 1970s with Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards in the New Barbarians. Clarke, known for playing his instrument more like an upright bass, has the almost uncanny ability to give his guitar an almost percussive sound."

"While Stanley Clarke is both a master of the double bass and electric bass, and a dynamic visionary on both instruments, he's also an accomplished composer, as evidenced by many of his solo discs, the groove-heave 1976 release, School Days, as well as his film scores. Clarke is clearly a master of jazz-rock fusion, especially during his time with Return to Forever, but he can lay down a funk groove like no other, and he swings like a madman."

"For those of a certain age and spanning older generations, Dunn might be most recognizable for his appearance in the beloved comedy The Blues Brothers. However, Dunn's contributions as a bass player and to the music industry are much more expansive and celebrated. Dunn was long considered one of the great session musicians of all time. From his days at Stax Records until his death in 2012 at 70, Dunn was one of the most sought-after bassists around the globe."

"The amount of Motown legends seems endless. Notably when talking about those in the background. That's where Jamerson comes in. A good amount of the bass work laid down during the glory days of Motown's dominance in the pop music world can be credited to Jamerson, whose technically solid and creative playing was a signature of the label's sound. The Hall of Famer was also one of the most prominent and revered session bassists during the 1960s and ‘70s. He played on legendary tunes such as "You Can’t Hurry Love," "My Girl," and "I Heard it Through the Grapevine." Talk about legendary."

"Perhaps the most mysterious member of Queen. Deacon was never one for the spotlight, but with his writing and composing contributions within the confines of Queen, Deacon had his share of legendary moments. He composed hits like "You’re My Best Friend" and "I Want to Break Free" and is likely best known for two of the most iconic bass intros of all time with "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Under Pressure." Arguably one of the most underrated members of an iconic band in music history, Deacon retired from playing in the late 1990s."

"The master of the six-string bass, Thundercat, whose father Ronald Bruner played drums for The Temptations and The Supremes, first left his mark with thrash/punk favorites Suicidal Tendencies. However, he's also worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, with whom he won a Grammy Award, Erykah Badu, and the late Mac Miller. In addition, Thundercat has released four widely-acclaimed solo albums as of 2023. He won his second Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album for his 2020 release It Is What It Is."

"When it comes to modern-day bassists, the creative Keeler stands tall above the field. The son of musician Fred Keeler, who jammed with the likes of Bob Dylan, Jesse has made a name for himself as the driving force within Canadian dance-punk duo Death From Above 1979 and the electronic-tinged MSTRKRFT. Whether talking dance, techno, electronica, punk, or pure rock, Keeler is a dynamic musician who continues experimenting with his overall sound. Keeler is usually sporting his see-through bass, which screams and howls with an almost haunting vibe."

"Tina Weymouth can hold her own among the best bass players in the world. That's been the case for quite a long time. Weymouth’s punk-tinged, funk-infused bass lines have influenced countless women to pick up a bass and follow a path that is not foreign in the modern day. Whether we're talking about her work with Talking Heads or her own band Tom Tom Club (with husband and fellow Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz), Weymouth has always delivered the goods. She plays with confidence and continues to innovate."

"One of the special characters in music history. Collins got his first real shot at stardom while a member of James Brown’s famous backing band. He contributed to such Brown classics as "Sex Machine" and "Super Bad." From there, Collins took that soul background and his "space bass" with a funk vibe over to George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic. In addition to playing with those two juggernauts of sound, the Hall of Famer has collaborated with the likes of Talking Heads and Keith Richards. Collins has also taught the bass and has been featured in music videos and on television sitcoms."

"Kaye’s stellar professional music career began with the sounds of jazz and big band before becoming one of the most sought-after pop/rock session bassists and guitarists, beginning in the late 1950s. During a career that covered over a half-century, Kaye’s bass work was featured alongside music giants like Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and Quincy Jones. A long-time teacher of the electric bass, Kaye played on Nancy Sinatra’s classic "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" and contributed to the famed Mission: Impossible theme. How's that for a legacy?"

"John Coltrane once said, "Paul Chambers was one of the greatest bass players in jazz. His playing is beyond what I could say about it." Chambers played a vital role in both the Prestige recordings of Coltrane, as well as a part of Miles Davis's first great quintet, appearing on the 1959 landmark album, Kind of Blue. Chambers, who died at the age of 33, also released some fine recordings as a leader, namely Whims of Chambers and Bass on Top."

"While Ray Brown could swing heavy with bebop pioneers like Dizzy Gillespie, he's probably best known for part in pianist Oscar Peterson's trio from 1951-1966. Brown's buoyant playing seemed to match Peterson's relaxed attack on the piano. The bassist, who was briefly married to Ella Fitzgerald, backed up the singer, as well as countless other jazz luminaries until he passed away at the age of 75 in 2002. Brown released dozens of discs under his own name from the mid '40s to the early 2000s."

"Over the last five decades, Dave Holland has established himself as one of the most skilled bassists in jazz. As a leader, the English bassist released some excellent forward-thinking recordings, like his 1972 debut, Conference of the Birds, which also featured Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers, and 1982's Jumpin' In, which featured frequent collaborator, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler."

"An integral part of Ornette Coleman's early groups, Charlie Haden played an important role in the development of free jazz, while also being an extremely competent and intuitive player. While his playing and writing with the large ensemble Liberation Music Orchestra, as well as his output with Keith Jarrett's group is stellar, his duo recordings are great, as well, namely Beyond the Missouri Sky with guitarist Pat Metheny and Nightfall with pianist John Taylor."

"Just 25 when he died in a car accident in 1961, Scott LaFaro showed an early proficiency on the bass after taking it up at the age of 18, just before starting at Ithaca College. A weeks into his sophomore year, LaFaro hit the road with Buddy Morrow, but left the band in Los Angeles, and then went on to play with Chet Baker, Stan Kenton, Cal Tjader and Ornette Coleman. LaFaro is probably best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio over the last few years of the bassist's life. His playing on Evans's Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby is just remarkable."

"Ron Carter has played on over 2,500 albums and secured a spot in jazz history as one of the world's finest bassists. Doing much more than merely helping anchor the rhythm, Carter is a melodic master. In his five-decade-long career, he's played with countless jazz legends, including a five-year stint in Miles Davis's quintet, an outfit that also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. While his playing on most of the recordings he did with Davis are stellar, some of his albums as a leader, like Uptown Conversation, are excellent, as are his duo albums with guitarist Jim Hall, platters like Live at the Village West and Alone Together."

"I was gonna clean my room, until I got high I was gonna get up and find the broom, but then I got high My room is still messed up, and I know why: 'Cause I got high, because I got high, because I got high."

"The warrant said narcotics and kidnapping The warrant said narcotics and kidnapping Are you kidding? I make my money rapping Why does the warrant say narcotics — well, I know narcotics. But why kidnapping?"

"Peter Hook has had a fractious relationship with New Order over the years, and the two factions have been engaging in legal wrangling over the use of the name. Before that he, of course, was part of Joy Division, playing alongside Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner until Curtis's tragic suicide in 1980. It was with Joy Division where he developed his famous high-note style, claiming that the amp he learnt on was so bad that he could only play high notes in order to hear himself!"

"Some trap lyrics are unspeakable, unlistenable, but we have to try to understand why these young people are saying these things."

"It contains a very important line: 'you die a little in order to live.'"

"It’s hard to start from yourself and say: ‘Well, this is who I am, and this is my path’... Talent alone is not enough. You need character, reliability, humility, and courage."

"Talent? It’s not enough for fame."