Paul Westerberg Quotes

I went to see 'Shine a Light,' and it was the most perfect thing I could have done to watch that man do what he does in front of an audience. It's primarily Mick Jagger, but they're all so confident and relaxed and in love with what they do, and aware of the power of what they do. It's just deeply, deeply attractive.

This is the way I wanna die. Torn apart by angry fans who want me to play a different song.

When I come onstage, I'm exploding.

I can bring a crowd down. There should be a contest for that.

When you see a band, you want to see characters.

What makes you a rock star is what are you able to do when you get behind that microphone, when you put that guitar in your hands, when you wield those drumsticks, and when you raise your hand in front of twenty thousand people: do they respond? That's being a rock star.

Onstage, we're very dominant and aggressive. But we laugh and play a lot, too.

Everybody has forgotten about showmanship. People don't look like rock stars any more. They just look like regular dudes off the street.

After I saw Kiss on stage, I wanted my show to look like the fourth of July. The persona of Rick James was wild and crazy, sex, drugs and rock and roll.

The energy that comes when you compel people to dance stays with you your whole career - whether you are playing to 100,000 people at Glastonbury or 1,000 kids in a club.

I don't do anything specific for the stage. I'm just myself. I can't stand still for five seconds. I'm normally quite active, so that just comes out on stage. If I see people react to me and my music, I just have to give back and express myself.

I put on the best live show, the absolute best live show I can possibly can.

Being on stage makes me come to life. When all eyes are on you, they're watching every move you make.

My dream has been to have my rock band behind me, play live, and entertain.

You look at Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Bob Seger. All they ever wanted to do was go out there and entertain, and I'm the same way.

I don't know why people are so surprised by my live performances.

On stage, we just want to generate hysteria. We don't care about looking cool or posing.

Honestly, live is my favorite way of performing. Every show is a completely different energy.

When the music is physically demanding, I want to make sure that the effort involved is put across to the audience through physical gesture.

I love playing to people and seeing them react.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm just a guitar player, and my job is to go out there and play and entertain and do my thing.

People want performers, personality and drama, and you got that in the .

Performing 60,000 people, that's easy. The energy's already there. They're already doing most of the work. All you gotta do is not forget the words - and feed them energy, too.

Beyonce moves a lot. She's astonishing, dances and sings at the same time. She is buff.

In the summer of 1991, I was on the first Lollapalooza tour. Nightly, I would watch Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell go out in front of a sea of people and within minutes have all of them in the palm of his hand. I have never seen anything like it since.