Buddy Rich Quotes

The fact that I'm often pushing my voice as hard as I can is from playing in nightclubs in Albuquerque where you don't have a good sound system.

When you're onstage with an electric band going through a massive P.A. system, it's very artificial. You can't really hear your own voice as it comes out of your mouth.

I do some solo, acoustic stuff, but I also like plugging in my electric guitar and playing loud with a band.

During a big rock show, you can flub a few things and nobody will hear it, because it gets buried under everything else.

We tune differently, and we use some tricks. There's just the two of us for much of a concert, so we want a big sound. We do use some guitar effects, distortion and delay. Playing cello with distortion sounds so good.

I have made stage adjustments which allow me to hear myself better onstage so that has made playing live much more enjoyable.

We were gradually playing larger venues and in the early days PA systems were kind of non-existent. So to play loud, we had to use louder equipment. The PA systems back then didn't mic the instruments - only the vocals.

The more guitars we have onstage the better, as I'm concerned.

I blew amps like they were made of tissue paper. Once I blew out the sound system at Royal Albert Hall in London.

I play loud onstage for my own benefit as I like. But I'm not too fond of the P.A. either.

With bass, especially bottom end, the vibration has to happen on stage otherwise the feel is wrong. This is why you can't scale the equipment down too far.

I love the intimate, single spotlight, troubadour-y quiet, delicate moments. But I also love Springsteen and screaming and shouting.

I think anyone would want to see their favorite band in a small club over a large stadium.

When I was first starting out, you'd have to bang an old upright piano and stick a mike in it and it would always feed back and you could never turn it up loud enough to be heard and I would beat my hands black and blue and bloody.

It's interesting how some songs really lend themselves to performance in a big public venue and performance by a band and so on, and so they're even more successful in that context than they were on the record.

The transformation that happens when a young artist goes on the road - you put the acoustic guitar down and start to play the electric a little louder - it gets a little bit ragged.

I don't want to go on tour and have everyone just sitting there waiting for one song.

I'm a singer-songwriter, but we get loud and we jump around. We have dance moves; we freak out. It's really fun, man!

My first killer amp was a Sunn Beta Lead. It was solid-state, but that Sunn was incredibly loud. I used to say to my friends, 'Hey, check it out. It's only on two.'

I can't understand artists that don't want to perform and, like, get on stage and do their songs for all their fans every night.

Any chance to get out and play live for some people and get out of the studio is nice.

There's nothing better than live music, I think.

I really like conducting my music in concerts because I'm convinced it's not just for films; it has its own life. It can live far away from the images of the movie.

I'd say it's harder to play with an acoustic guitar strapped over your shoulder for a few hundred people than it is to play in front of thousands with an entire bombastic band behind you.

The show isn't about screens, and we don't have any video content or lasers or things blowing up. I want people to come to our show to listen. I want the show to be the music.