Bassists

"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…"

"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."

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

"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."

"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"

"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."

"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"

"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 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."

"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"

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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?"

"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 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."

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

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"[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."

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

"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."

"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!"

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

"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."

"…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?"

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

"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."

"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!"

"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."

"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."