Top 30 Levon Helm Quotes

I like walking on the edge.

My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I’m home.

Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better.

The crowd is just as important as the group. It takes everything to make it work.

Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian.

We’re all dealt with the same hand here, so to speak. I feel like I’ve had it a lot better than most people. I’ve had the opportunity to travel and play music all my life.

It’s different playing in a studio than it is playing live, of course.

My parents wanted me to be smart and be a scholar, and the best I could do was graduate high school.

Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.

If you pour some music on whatever’s wrong, it’ll sure help out.

When I was younger, I used to drive up to a bunch of turkeys, roll down the window and say something. They’d all gobble back at once.

Don’t we all want what’s best for each other?

Good times don’t last long sometimes.

I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.

We all love musical architecture; there’s no doubt about that.

Lord, when the song wants to pick up and go a little faster towards the end, it’s hard for me to resist.

If things are going slow, I’m itchy.

I like to get within handshaking distance of the crowd. If it happens, they know it, we know it, and that’s all we came here for.

Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it.

You can either make it come around or you can’t. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.

I don’t fool with a lot of things that I can’t have fun with. There’s not much reward in that.

Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me.

The Jungle Bush Beaters didn’t last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did.

I played some Yamaha drums that I like a lot. And I like the Yamaha people a lot too. They’ve been really nice to me and The Band.

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

I don’t think I’m a millionaire, but I’m comfortable.

With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.

Drums usually seem to tune themselves.

The way to do it is to put as much life into the song as I can. You can either get it to breathe or you can’t.

Songs don’t wear out. Good songs are good now. If they were a comfort during those hard times in the past, they’ll be a comfort in today’s age.