Band Dynamics Quotes

For me, the original Guns N' Roses is the embodiment of a certain kind of chemistry that really couldn't be duplicated.

Widespread Panic discovered a couple of my songs and started doin' 'em on the gigs. They'd take a song and expand it and everybody plays a long time and people really like that. But I made my living as a songwriter so I try to get to singin' and get it over with.

Joe Walsh is somebody who... he's a writer, obviously, and he's a singer-songwriter, whatever, but at the end of the day, when it comes to the Eagles, he's there to play guitar, and he's there to supply whatever is needed for that band, and that is what I feel with Metallica.

I'd say that 98 percent of the bands we've played with through the years have either broken up or are stuck in some kind of '80s revival now.

Luckily, I'm in a band with two other guys who really pull their own weight and have the skills and abilities to compensate for my weaknesses.

Wu-Tang has only done, like, three rehearsals throughout our whole career.

Here's the way Static-X has always worked: I write all the songs by myself - totally and completely by myself - I give demos to the other guys, and then they add their parts to it, and then we argue about stuff and compromise and it turns out being Static-X.

George was getting alot of independence for himself in those days. He was writing more, and wanted things to go his way - where, when we first started things basically went John and Paul's way. You know, 'cuz they were the writers.

I had a solo career before Van Halen. My fan base filtered through Van Halen with me and came right on out the other side with me.

Then Bono arrived, and he meant to play the guitar, but he couldn't play very well, so he started to sing. He couldn't do that either. But he was such a charismatic character that he was in the band anyway, as soon as he arrived. I was in charge for the first five minutes, but as soon as Bono got there, I was out of a job.

When I played with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in Vegas, the guys used to go, 'Dick, cut it out, man! You're moving around too much on this stage. You're making us look bad!'

You know why Foo Fighters have been a band for 20 years? Because I've never really told anybody what I think of them. The last thing you ever want to do is go to therapy with your band.

Yes's whole career was never really planned in any sort of way. It's always sad when a member leaves, but it's exciting when someone new comes in, and that regenerates the freshness of the band.

Everyone's got their problems and their demons, but when we get onstage and play as five, that really all goes away, and that's really all I look at.

I'm not sure you can count as history, was Keith Richards's "Life," which he so modestly titled it. I did find it a fascinating book. Keith's a pretty honest fellow.

I prefer the band situation. I prefer the relationship. Music is meant to be that way. It's meant to be interdependent.

When it comes to being in a band or going solo, one is collaborative, and one is not. But generally speaking, when going solo, I am the boss. People can contribute ideas, but I am the boss. When collaborating, you make compromises and look for a common ground.

I feel it's quite important to have a band but what's more vital is to be friends with the members of the band. If there's not a bond there, you won't be able to jam. Apart from that, it's also vital to have the same vibe.

The Nazz survived for 18 months - that was my first taste of fame on some level and of the overall experience of being in a band. There are good and bad aspects, and I got to taste some of both, and, well, it's not as much fun as what you see in 'A Hard Day's Night,' let me just say that.

For me, it's always easier playing with a drummer.

I used to do this big rant at the end of some gigs with Ben Folds Five. The band broke into this big heavy metal thing and I started as a joke to scream in a heavy metal falsetto. I found myself saying things like: Feel my pain, I am white, feel my pain.

You'd probably never recognize the drummer from your favorite band ever, if they walked past you on the street. I didn't even recognize the drummer from Pink Floyd the other day, and they're one of the biggest bands in the world ever. That's their choice, they're not the front man, they don't want to be, they want to be behind their drum kit. They're always the ones in the photo shoots that look slightly uncomfortable when they're forced to wear a leather jacket.

If I were in the Beatles, I'd be a good George Harrison.

I guess because we're essentially a two-man band, we're attracting Wham's crowd. But Wham! are more of a businessman's band.

Everyone wants the same thing in this band, so we definitely respect each other. I mean, all of us have had hit songs, so it's a band full of people who really know what they're talking about, so you have to respect that even when you think something you have might be great, and they go, 'Man, it's not as great as you think it is.'