Musical Roles Quotes

If you're stuck at piano and you're not a lead guitarist or a lead vocalist, you're kind of at a nine-foot plank then and you should do something about it.

That's the nice thing about being in Mr. Big, is I'm not only the guitar player. I'm the background singer, and so I get to do both of those things. Sometimes we even switch instruments and I get to be the drummer.

Although I'm a lead guitarist, I'd say that a good 95 percent of my time onstage is spent playing rhythm.

It wasn't a class system where I was the better guy and he was the second-rate guy. That was his role and my role was to play the solos. But he took great pride in his technique as a rhythm guitarist.

I stepped back from being out front to playing bass. So we started switching: I'd play bass on one song, we'd switch on the next song; I'd play piano... we'd play mandolin.

I started acting as a child in Community Theatre but I didn't do any serious stuff. It was all musicals like 'Annie' and 'Wizard of Oz.' I was always in the chorus.

The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing.

I'll sing backgrounds, but a lead singer, you know, you've got to have that mentality and personality. I'd rather be the bass guy.

I enjoy my solo career because I get to play smaller places like clubs and theaters, and the interaction with the audience is much higher quality. It also sounds better than a baseball stadium. Everybody has a good seat, and I don't have to play a specific part like I do in the Eagles.

A lot of times, I played bass on songs. Gene plays guitar on some songs.

When you're in a band and there's five of you, you have to accommodate five people in every song.

I would love to play Bobby in 'Company.' Also, I would love to play George in 'Sunday.'

Only one of us would usually sing lead. Which most of the time was, Mickey or Dave. They thought it was perfectly a natural routine, because Mickey and Dave saw themselves as TV actors.

I guess, from the beginning, Thurston and Kim were the dominant singers in the band, and although I was singing in bands previously, I guess I mainly deferred to them a lot in terms of who was singing the bulk of the songs.

From the get-go, I was wise enough to say, 'Well, I'm playing rhythm 'cause Angus could really soar with the leads.' I used to mess around a little bit with lead at the time but not much; Angus, he was just so much better; he just went for it, and it was brilliant. My place was sitting with rhythm, and I love rhythm. I've always loved it.

I have mainly come from a theatre background, I did 'Oliver' here I played the Artful Dodger and I did 'The Sound of Music.'

I wasn't originally a bass player. I just found out I was needed, because everyone wants to play guitar.

A bass player has to think and play like a bass player. A drummer has to play and think like a drummer, and stay out of the way of the vocalist. The guitar player has to respect everybody else.

The reality is, like any band, you can never quite quantify who does what.

The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm

The only thing I wouldn't like to do is to play roles as a musician. I'm not sure that I would be comfortable doing that, and I'm not sure I'd be very good at it. I think I would be better served, and would be a better partner, if I was in something outside of myself.

If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.

That's what Joe Don Rooney and I do. He plays guitar and I play bass - and there's no reason to call it a band if you're not gonna have the guys in the band playing on the records.

But I always wound up being the damn John, when I wanted to be the Paul.

A lot of times, when you're the leading lady, you get to sing heartwarming songs and that's it, and people don't get a sense of who you truly are.