Some are skeptical. My mom thought the guitar was going to fizzle out in two weeks, that it was just a fad-and that was in 1958.
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.
If you can make it sound exciting with a joke drum machine, you know you’ve got something.
I’m happy in English studios. I just feel like there’s no pressure anywhere.
If you don’t have an album or you don’t have any tune, you can’t start.
At the end of the day, there are a hell of a lot of notes being played out there and I defy the average middle-American or the average punter to differentiate between them.
I wanted to be in Rolling Stone number two with a tomorrow feel to it, like an experimental Rolling Stones with Jagger singing.
London is a dead duck, as far as innovative new music is concerned, unless you want to have your head blown off with some outrageous, rubbish, pounding dance music.
I don’t care about the rules, if I don’t break the rules at least 10x every song then I’m not doing my job.
I’m a very emotional person. If I’ve got something on my mind, that would stop me from giving my best.
I play purely from the heart, y’know, and so if it doesn’t work the first couple of hours, forget it.