Jason Bonham Quotes

I've listened to musicians who say that using a metronone makes you robotic, that it decreases your 'feel.' That's ridiculous. Either you have feel or you don't. Feel is one of those intangibles that can't be taught. But if you do have feel, using a metronome will allow you to play cleaner - and that'll make your 'feel' have more, well, 'feeling.'

My techniques are basics, but my willingness to be in the pocket and see things is very high level.

I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way.

I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes.

Playing well with others is important - not being too flashy, just keeping good time and of course coming up with cool beats. A good snare drum, kick drum, high hat. Just getting good at the hand feet coordination.

Drumming is so hard.

I just play drums, mate.

Playing drums, for me, is like breathing. It's like thinking. It's like eating. It's like walking.

To me, there's way more to being a good drummer than precision and technique.

As a drummer, I'm rhythmically so disabled that it's hilarious.

My playing is always just a little on top of the beat. I can't lay down the kind of groove that Brad Wilk can. I'd really have to lay back to do that; it just doesn't feel natural to me.

I'm more a percussion instrument than a dancer.

A lot of young drummers have a tendency to really overplay. Sometimes simple is better, and the notes that aren't played between the spaces are bigger than the notes that are.

I'm being trained to shake the bon-bon appropriately.

People assume that because I'm a great athlete, I can dance. But no. My rhythm is off a little bit.

I have always had a certain rhythmic approach to my work.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

Music deals with time and timing. It's so magical, but when you get into it, every little sound and every little space between the sounds, it's critical, so critical. And if it's not there, it not only feels wrong, but it ruins things.

Drumming is my middle name.

Swing is extreme coordination. It's a maintaining balance, equilibrium. It's about executing very difficult rhythms with a panache and a feeling in the context of very strict time. So, everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid.

When I speak of natural drummers I'm talking about guys that are playing with the talent God gave 'em.

Even on the drum level, it's all about stating your theme, going back to certain things that need to be emphasized, not doing fills for the sake of doing fills.

How can you not love a man banging on the drums? He knows how to keep a rhythm.

The heart of a music is its rhythm. The heart of rhythm section music is the rhythm.

If you listen to the way I speak, I have a lot of rhythm, use a lot of accents. When I'm playing my instrument, that concept comes through very clearly.