Rock Singers

"The concept of God in America is very different than it is in England. Because we see the horrendous outcome of religion as being an American thing, in which the name of God has been hijacked by a gang of psychopaths and bullies and homophobes, and the name of God has been used for their own twisted agendas. So that if you mention God, or a belief in God, in England, it's almost automatically associated with that kind of thinking. Religion's gotten a really bad name."

"Of course I doubt [the existence of God], I would distrust anybody who didn't doubt. But I'm a believer. I have an understanding and belief in the divinity of things. It seems to me that people look at God in the wrong way. They think that God is there to serve them, but it's the other way around. God isn't some kind of cosmic bell-boy to be called upon to sort things out for us. It's important for us to realise that God has given us the potential to sort things out on our own."

"The actualising of God through the medium of the love song remains my prime motivation as an artist."

"My responsibility as an artist is to turn up at the page or the piano or the microphone. The rest is up to God."

"God has matured. He is not the impulsive, bowelless being of the Testaments - the vehement glorymonger, with His bag of cheap carny tricks and his booming voice - the fiery huckster with his burning bushes and his wonder wands. Nowadays God knows what He wants and He knows who He wants."

"Do I personally believe in a personal God? No."

"Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite, it is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self. This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value; it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering."

"Do you want to know how to write a song? Song-writing is about counterpoint. Counterpoint is the key. Putting two disparate images beside each other and seeing which way the sparks fly. Like letting a small child in the same room as, I don't know, a Mongolian psychopath or something, and just sitting back and seeing what happens. Then you send in a clown, say, on a tricycle, and again, you wait, and you watch ... And if that doesn't do it... you shoot the clown."

"The song is heroic because the song confronts death. The song is immortal and bravely stares down our own extinction. The song emerges from the spirit world with a true message: Some day I will tell you how to slay the dragon."

"From what I know about alcoholism, I'd say there's nothing romantic, nothing grand, nothing heroic, nothing brave — nothing like that about drinking. It's a real coward's death."

"My shit's fucked up. It had to happen to the best of us. The rich folk suffer like the rest of us, It will happen to you."

"You know I hate it when you put your hand inside my head And switch all my priorities around. Why don't you go pick on someone your own size instead?"

"I can saw a woman in two. But you won't want to look in the box when I do"

"Life'll kill ya, That's what I said. Life'll kill ya, Then you'll be dead. Life'll find ya Wherever you go. Requiescat in pace That's all she wrote."

"We contemplate eternity Beneath the vast indifference of heaven."

"And I'm searching for a heart, Searching everyone. They say love conquers all. You can't start it like a car, You can't stop it with a gun."

"Down in the basement I have a Craftsman lathe. Show it to the children When they misbehave."

"I'm very well acquainted with the seven deadly sins I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in I'm proud to be a glutton and I don't have time for sloth I'm greedy and I'm angry and I don't care who I cross."

"When I was young, times were hard. When I got older it was worse."

"I woke up this morning and fell out of bed; Trouble waiting to happen. Should've quit while I was ahead; Trouble waiting to happen. I turned on the news to the Third World War, Opened up the paper to World War IV. Just when I thought it was safe to be bored, Trouble waiting to happen."

"They made hypocrite judgments after the fact, But the name of the game is be hit and hit back."

"Every day I get up in the morning and go to work And do my job — whatever. I need some Sentimental Hygiene. Everybody's at war these days. Let's have a mini-surrender. I need some Sentimental hygiene"

"So I'm gonna hurl myself against the wall, 'Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all."

"Now I'm hiding in Honduras I'm a desperate man Send lawyers, guns and money The shit has hit the fan"

"I'm the innocent bystander Somehow I got stuck Between the rock and the hard place And I'm down on my luck"

"Send lawyers, guns and money. Dad, get me out of this!"

"Well, I went home with the waitress The way I always do How was I to know She was with the Russians, too"

"We made mad love: Shadow love, Random love, And abandoned love. Accidentally like a martyr. The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder"

"I saw Lon Chaney, Jr. walking with the Queen Doing the werewolves of London. I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's... His hair was perfect."

"He's the hairy-handed gent, who ran amok in Kent. Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair. You better stay away from him. He'll rip your lungs out, Jim. Huh, I'd like to meet his tailor."

"I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand, Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain. He was looking for a place called Le Ho Fooks. Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein."

"He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom. Excitable boy, they all said. And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home. Excitable boy, they all said."

"Roland the headless Thompson gunner, Norway's bravest son. Time, time, time For another peaceful war. But time stands still for Roland 'Til he evens up the score. They can still see his headless body stalking through the night In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun; In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun."

"Except in dreams, you're never really free."

"And if California slides into the ocean Like the mystics and statistics say it will, I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill.Don't the sun look angry through the trees? Don't the trees look like crucified thieves? Don't you feel like Desperados under the eaves? Heaven help the one who leaves."

"Carmelita hold me tighter, I think I'm sinking down. And I'm all strung out on heroin On the outskirts of town."

"So much to do, there's plenty on the farm; I'll sleep when I'm dead. Saturday night I like to raise a little harm; I'll sleep when I'm dead."

"Loneliness and frustration, We both came down with an acute case. And when the lights came up at two, I caught a glimpse of you. And your face looked like something Death brought with him in his suitcase"

"Poor, poor pitiful me. Poor, poor pitiful me. These young girls won't let me be. Lord have mercy on me. Woe is me."

"She's so many women, He can't find the one who was his friend. So he's hanging on to half her heart. He can't have the restless part, So he tells her to hasten down the wind."

"I wrote my songs despite the fact that I was a drunk, not because of it."

"Sickness, doctors, that scares me, not violence — helplessness. That's why I turn to violent stories."

"You know, you put more value on every minute … I mean, I always thought I kind of did that. I really always enjoyed myself. But it's more valuable now. You're reminded to enjoy every sandwich, and every minute of playing with the guys, and being with the kids and everything."

"Well, first of all, let me say that I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years. It was one of those phobias that really didn’t pay off."

"It just sort of happened. I wrote like what I'd always read and what was in the movies … I'm sure popular music is supposed to be like this."

"I write songs about things that I'm simultaneously trying to not think about."

"I'm insane. I'm fucked up. I have problems. But I don't get depressed and I don't get bored."

"Liza, in terms of sheer talent, just oozes with it. She has sheer energy and stamina, which she gets across the stage, and the way she delivers herself to the public is a good influence. There is a lot to learn from her"

"My lifetime role model and hero is Freddie Mercury of Queen. His songwriting skills, I cannot even approach, but his showmanship, I learned it from videos. I’m No. 1 in the U.K. right now, so if I have any chance to go there, I want to meet Queen and to tell them how much I got inspired by their music."

"Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest... he took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand."