Guitarists From The United States

"He has a woman's name and wears makeup. How original."

"I get onstage now with more attitude at fifty-seven than I had when I was twenty. When I was twenty, my attitude was kind of like, "Yeah, yeah…I'm a big rock star." Now, when I get onstage, I go up there, and I am the Moriarty of rock. I am the consummate villain. I am the Hannibal Lector of rock, and I play it like that. Alice just seems like an arrogant bastard or villain who is making the audience feel as though they are lucky to be there when in reality that is exactly the opposite of my personality. With Alice though…it is great to play him or portray him as an Alan Rickman type character who is very condescending. That’s what makes him fun to watch — he's Captain Hook."

"The minute you step onstage, you get eight feet taller"

"Man's got his woman to take his seed He's got the power — oh She's got the need She spends her life through pleasing up her man She feeds him dinner or anything she can. She cries alone at night too often He smokes and drinks and don't come home at all. Only women bleed..."

"Mistakes are part of the game. It's how well you recover from them, that's the mark of a great player."

"I used to be such a sweet, sweet thing 'Til they got a hold of me. I opened doors for little old ladies, I helped the blind to see. I got no friends 'cause they read the papers. They can't be seen with me and I'm gettin' real shot down And I'm feeling mean. No more Mister Nice Guy, No more Mister Clean, No more Mister Nice Guy, They say he's sick, he's obscene."

"Nobody and nothing beats The Simpsons. Even after all this time, it's still the best satire since Monty Python. I haven't had an alcoholic drink in 22 years, but when I did drink I'd go for either Canadian whisky or Budweiser. Sometimes both. For a long time I used to think "Hey you, get off the floor!" was my name."

"We can only take it so far, because man can only take it so far, lower self can only take it so far, and you have to realize that the public is only at a certain place. We won't see the day when the public accepts what we wanna project, even though they are accepting a lot now. By the time they're accepting it, maybe they'll be too old. ... If it's total freedom, I guess the ultimate thing you can go into is total silence between the audience and performer, with the performer projecting something he doesn't even have to play. A total silence trip is the ultimate. ... We do antagonize them psychologically. People look at us and react. They either go "Wow! Hey-hey-hey, baby!" and we say that's great. They're reacting and that's wonderful. It's better than them sitting there doing nothing. I say make them react — do whatever's in your power to move the audience, and if that's where it is, and there where it is with America, sex and violence, then I say project it."

"How old are you? Sixteen? S-seventeen? [asks security guard] Is seventeen legal?"

"I call it treason against rock 'n' roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics. ... When I was a kid and my parents started talking about politics, I'd run to my room and put on the Rolling Stones as loud as I could. So when I see all these rock stars up there talking politics, it makes me sick. .... If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."

"Well we can't salute ya Can't find a flag If that don't suit ya That's a dragSchool's out for summer School's out forever School's been blown to pieces."

"People that haven't seen us yet are shocked because they think that Alice Cooper must be a female folksinger. They don't expect the whole thing. And the whole thing is a direct product of television and movies and America, 'cause that's where America's based. That's where their heart is from the sex and violence of TV and the movies, and that was our influence."

"If you confine it, you're confining a whole thing. If you make it spontaneous, so that anything can happen, like we don't want to confine or restrict anything. What we can do, whatever we can let happen, you just let it happen. ... we're taking sex, which is probably another half of American entertainment, sex and violence, and we're projecting it, and we're saying this is the way everything is right now. Biologically, everyone is male and female, so many male genes and so many female. And so what it is is we're saying "OK, what's the big deal. Why is everybody so up tight about sex?" About faggots, queers, things like that. That's the way they are. ... People don't accept that they are both male and female, and people are afraid to break out of their sex thing because that's a big insecurity that's doing that. Consequently, people will make fun of us. We don't mind that, that's making them accept more, making fun that we accept that. The thing is this is the way we are. We think it's a gas. ... We like reactions — a reaction is walking out on us, a reaction is throwing tomatoes at the stage, that's a healthy psychological reaction. Reaction's applauding, passing out or throwing up, and all of that is a reaction, and as much of that we can get, the better. I don't care how they react, as long as they react."

"I'm very romantic, I'm extremely romantic. I date my wife. ... That's one thing guys don't understand. This is something that you would be very surprised that I understand, is that men are microwaves and women are pressure cookers. Men want sex, bang; women like romance. Guys, learn how to romance."

"I'm gonna give her all my soul. I'm gonna play her Rock 'N' Roll."

"I can work, I can travel, I can sleep anywhere, Cross every border with nothing to declare. You can look back babe, but it's best not to stare."

"Create myself down south. Impress all the women. Pretend I'm Samuel Clemens. ear seersucker and white linens."

"You're flirting with time baby Flirting with time, but maybe, Time baby, is catching up with you."

"So if I come to your door, let me sleep on your floor. I'll give you all I have and a little more."

"She's got nothing to hide, And she hides it so well. Keeps broken dreams To fix up and sell."

"And it's hard to say Who you are these days. But you run on anyway, Don't you baby?"

"Last time through I hid my tracks. So well I could not get back. Yeah my way was hard to find. Can't sell your soul for peace of mind."

"And you may think it's all over. But there'll be more just like me Who won't give in; Who'll rise again. Can't stop a man from dreaming."

"There's rain on the road And the faithful have gone. In a crowd all alone, Walking 'round in a song."

"How about a cheer For all those bad girls And all the boys That play that rock and roll? They love it Like you love Jesus. It does the same thing To their souls."

"Always had more dogs than bones."

"I keep waking up all by myself, With a blue jay in my brain. Flappin' his wings, making me sing, it was just about to rain."

"There was Rock 'N' Roll across the dial. When I think of her, it makes me smile."

"There was no use in pretending, No magic left to hear. All the music gave me Was a craving for light beer."

"There goes the last DJ Who plays what he wants to play, And says what he wants to say. Hey, hey, hey. There goes your freedom of choice; There goes the last human voice. There goes the last DJ."

"As we celebrate mediocrity, All the boys upstairs want to see How much you'll pay for What you used to get for free."

"But if you shoot at everyone you see, Can't be my friend 'cause you might shoot at me."

"They say be careful who you believe, Be careful who you trust. Did you smile when you pulled the trigger That dropped me in the dust?"

"Oh my love if I reveal Every secret I've concealed, How many thoughts would you steal, How much of my pain would you feel?"

"And I don't want to mean anything to you, I don't want to tempt you to be true."

"I can't save you from yourself, you gotta want it."

"Well, they raised that horse to be a jumper He was owned by a mid-west bible thumper. His preacher was a Louisiana drummer. Took all winter, to get through the summer."

"One more night, God I've had to fight To keep my line of sight on what's real One more day I fear I've lost my way I don't know how to say what I feel."

"We're overdue for a dream come true. Long time, nothing new. We're overdue for a dream come true."

"I've got someone who loves me tonight. I've got over a thousand dollars in the bank, And I'm all right."

"No more songs tonight, I'm drivin' to the break of day. No more words tonight, We've got enough to throw away."

"Now I'm walkin' this street on my own, but she's with me wherever I go."

"I hope you never need no one, Hope you treasure your independence. I hope you never fall in love With someone like you."

"Look deep in the eyes of love And find out what you were looking for."

"Some days are diamonds. Some days are rocks."

"Baby, you've got a heart so big, It could crush this town. But I can't hold out forever. Even walls fall down."

"You follow your feelings, you follow your dreams; You follow the leader into the trees. And what's in there waiting, neither one of us knows. You gotta keep one eye open the further you go."

"Redemption comes to those who wait, Forgiveness is the key."

"I'm so tired of being tired. Sure as night will follow day, Most things I worry about Never happen anyway."

"I saw an angel, I saw my fate. I can only thank God it was not too late."