TOMMY SHAW

Around '75 when the recession hit, club owners started going to disco because it was cheaper for them to just buy a sound system than it was to hire a band.

There were some older guitarists on my side of town, and I got to know many of them.

We were playing popular music, but we were doing our own arrangements because we were too lazy to sit down and figure out the originals.

I don't write on tour. There is so much to do day in and day out when you are on the road.

I feel like I have the greatest life an artist could dream of.

I love the idea of stepping out of the band situation into a solo world with no boundaries, no expectations, where nothing is out of bounds.

When I became 16 I started thinking seriously about singing.

When it stops being fun, stop.

Once you start thinking about it in a mercenary frame of mind, then you're finished. You're a joke, because there are too many mercenaries out there already.

When I was about 3, my grandfather used to give me and my sister a nickel to sit out on the front porch with him and sing songs.

As a solo artist, I just felt cemented in front of the mike stand. There was very little time to play with the audience and be a band member.

I'd better be on the road, or I'll be going nuts. I'm not the kind of guy who sits around with a pipe and slippers watching soap operas.

Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.

It is all about being open and paying attention to the music in your head. I think most people have original music playing in their heads from time to time.

I don't like looking back.

I like being on the road, living in hotels. While I've got a real nice house, I go crazy when I'm there.

If music became extinct now, I don't know what I'd be good for.

Timing is everything.

It was more fun trying to figure out I Want To Hold Your Hand than to take lessons. By this time I knew basic chords.

Make sure you know what you are signing when you sign a recording contract.

I was born in Alabama and my first live music experiences were in church. Every Sunday we watched regional gospel groups on television singing their hearts out.

I soon gave up instruction for self-teaching.

I have always been a sucker for the big, upbeat chorus.

We're kind of defined by our mistakes.

I've always stuck with Gibsons. I've had Guilds and Fenders, too, but I always wind up going back to Gibsons.