The basic assumption of the secular society is that modernity overcomes religion.
And it also became clear that these conditions of inequality and historical injustice have given rise to a feeling of hate in the world – a deeply felt hate that cannot easily be overcome with a few good words.
Western countries in particular can today no longer be separated from Muslim societies, because they have them within themselves. They are themselves internally globalized.
I don’t understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound. Finding ways to use the same guitar people have been using for 50 years to make sounds that no one has heard before is truly what gets me off.
I’ve never stuck around long enough to know if anyone would miss me. That’s rock ‘n’ roll, though. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Things turn out better by accident sometimes. But you can’t organize accidents.
Nowadays music is as disposable as a McDonald’s wrapper.
That old funny-shaped bit of wood is still staring me in the face every day saying ‘come on, you haven’t started yet!’ It’s infinite.
A lot of solos I hear sound so incredible, but they sound like somebody practicing. They sound a bit soulless – fiery, but at the same time, lacking in spirit and soul.
I cherish my privacy, and woe betide anyone who tries to interfere with that.
I try to become a singer. The guitar has always been abused with distortion units and funny sorts of effects, but when you don’t do that and just let the genuine sound come through, there’s a whole magic there.
I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it.
I was interested in the electric guitar even before I knew the difference between electric and acoustic. The electric guitar seemed to be a totally fascinating plank of wood with knobs and switches on it. I just had to have one.
If you were to plot my success or failure, it goes, it very seldom stays on a high plateau.
As long as there’s something original going on, that’s all that matters.
When Jazz broke through in England, I remember sneaking to listen on the radio much to my parent’s disapproval.
It’s a diabolical business. I can’t imagine how hellish it must be to be hounded like Amy Winehouse and people like that. I have a little peripheral place on the outskirts of celebrity, when I go to premieres and that sort of stuff, which is as close as I want to get.
I never really felt at home with that – the headbands, the roses, the feet, the peace sign, all that bollocks. That wasn’t me at all; I felt like a fish totally out of water during the mid-’60s thing.
I’ve tried to become a singer with the guitar and not let any technological licks run my life. Just write the licks and play them as best as I can as a part rather than ad libbing.
I would have loved to have been two people, but I was determined not to devote my entire life to my career.