Performance-wise, you really need to be down in the trenches; you need to do the hard work, for a lot of reasons: To build yourself as a performer, to get a sense of the audience, to work hard and to wonder, ‘Do I really want to do this?’
I leave for the show at least an hour ahead, and I do some vocal warm-ups, and that’s pretty much it.
It’s hard to have a dialogue when you’re name-calling.
A girl playing rock and roll, it’s saying I own my sexuality and I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do. And I think people just find that threatening.
There’s nothing wrong with being single and not getting married and being, you know, just an old single lady. Who cares?
I don’t wait till stage to use my sexuality. My zipper’s down right now. I mean, I use it all the time.
Women play cellos and violins in symphony orchestras. They’re playing Beethoven and Bach. What do you mean they can’t play rock and roll?
I think it’s what the times are demanding. If you’re talking about the popular artists, they collaborate with a lot of different people and it seems to be in vogue now. It probably is indicative of the times.
If you are having trouble making a chord, get a book, that is how I learned. There are guitar tuning apps so you can tune your guitar, and just learn how to play along with your records. And it’s great to be able to play along with another musician. That is like trial by fire.
Well you know I’ve been in that place too where you worry about what everybody thinks of you, am I popular, do people care, are they looking at me, all that stuff. That’s a drag, man. Having to worry about fitting in, am I cool enough to ANYTHING.
A lot of the touring stuff has become a drag. Traveling itself is a drag. Anyone who’s been to an airport knows that.
Happiness doesn’t necessarily lie in material things. You just have to put yourself in a position to be happy. If you can do what you love for a living, that’s a good start.
You can never say never. I’m not sure if I even want to. I just don’t know. Some of it is just not able to be reached, you can’t remember some of it and the people that could help you remember have passed away. It might have to remain a remain.
Well before I was in a band, I wanted to be everything from a vet, an astronaut, an archeologist was a big one. It could be very wide-ranging because I had a lot of different interests including music so I’m very happy where I wound up.
To be so superfocused and honed in on one thing can be good because then you get what you’re supposed to get done, done but you also miss out on other things. I could have spent more time with my family, and a million other little things.
The internet did not exist when I started out, the fact that bands can build a website and get all their information out there is really helpful. If you really love to play, I would say to keep doing it, because it’s what you love and what you have to do.
I consider that success for anything, whether it’s being a musician or a writer. As long as you can support yourself, you’re successful. People need to change their idea of what success is.
I think the one-on-one gigs connecting with the fans – is the most important thing. That will help build your fan base. They’ll talk about you, and word spreads. Those things are just as important as knowing how to play an E chord.
Egotistical people are not pretty. We all know that, I’m sure everybody knows an egotistical person someplace.
Something happens, you can’t even put your finger on it, and then you don’t quite feel the same way anymore. All of a sudden, there’s fights or something and you are going “who is this person?” I’ve seen this happen to other people and it has happened to me.
Radio has changed, there was a little bit of difference around the country and now that is gone and everything is uniform. That is not the only place it’s happening in music, there’s a lot of consolidation.