"My vocation is more in composition, really, than anything else. Building up harmonies, orchestrating the guitar like an army – I think that’s where it’s at, really, for me. I’m talking about actual orchestration in the same way you’d orchestrate a classical piece of music. Instead of using brass and violins, you treat the guitars with synthesizers or other devices; give them different treatments, so that they have enough frequency range and scope and everything to keep the listener as totally committed to it as the player is."

"It’s almost unfair that one of the greatest electric warriors of all time, a riffmeister of repute and a rocker almost without parallel, also happened to be a brilliant and thoughtful acoustic player as well. Jimmy Page’s musical magpie act and boundless virtuosity meant he was able to take almost any genre or style and bend it to his will. Much like his electric side, Page’s acoustic playing was unconventional, full of strange angles and unexpected shapes and changes. And yet it somehow always rocked. Simply exceptional."

"Jimmy Page is one of rock music’s ultimate riff masters, guitar orchestrators and studio revolutionaries. His vast body of work with the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin exhibits the type of wild abandon often associated with Jimi Hendrix, the passion and grit of a seasoned bluesman, and the sensitivity of a folk musician. [...] Page’s landmark use of echo effects in tracks like “How Many More Times” and “You Shook Me,” bizarre tunings in cuts like “Friends” and “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp,” and excursions with a violin bow in songs like “Dazed and Confused” yielded textures that were unparalleled at the time."

"The music is lyrical without lyrics. The lyrics are telling a story and they're conveying a situation or a person or a reflection or an observation, and the construction of the music I felt was doing the same sort of thing. It was lyrical in the way it was being played."

"A riff will come out of.. this whole thing of do you practice at home and all that. Well, I play at home and before I knew where I was, things would be coming out and that's those little sections or riffs or whatever. At that stage it's selection and rejection. It's whether you continue with something or you go, 'No that's too much like something else,' and then you move into something else. If you've got an idea and you think that's quite interesting, then I'd work and build on it at home. "Rock and Roll" was something that came purely out of the ether."

"If you'd stop being a Metallica fan because I won't give you my music for free, then fuck you. I don't want you to be a Metallica fan."

"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."

"He was so far ahead of his time in so many ways, not only in drumming, but business. Playing songs like “Fight Fire with Fire” in '84, “Battery” in '86, and “Blackened” in '88, there's no denying his drumming talent. Playing what's needed for the song, not himself, and not overplaying. His song arrangement and his business acumen are also what sets him apart from many of his peers. I don't think there are as many drummers out there that have influenced as many people to start playing drums as Lars has — and I'm absolutely one of them!"

"Don't download this song Even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong. (you can just ask him!)"

"If there are people that are dumb enough to use Metallica to interrogate prisoners, you're forgetting about all the music that's to the left of us. I can name, you know, 30 Norwegian death metal bands that would make Metallica sound like Simon & Garfunkel."

"Don't talk it, walk it."

"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.""