There were a number of false starts where I was trying to make solo albums. They would get constantly folded into group efforts. In retrospect, I can say fair enough, that you call yourself a band member, and you’ve got to step up to the plate when the need arises.
Being president isn’t a solo position. You surround yourself with highly qualified people that are smarter about issues than you are. But that’s not enough. You then have to listen to them.
Anyone who likes Static-X will definitely like my solo record.
My favorite songwriters are all solo artists.
The goal is not to solo. Of course, it is possible to move fast in alpine style also with a partner. I just need the right partner.
I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do anything. It’s nice not have to get decisions out of three, sometimes four people, which can be like pulling teeth. So the amount of control that I have over what I’m doing is better for me as a solo artist.
I think Thespis just wanted to be a solo player, you know?
My solo show, ‘A Lot More Me,’ is part drag show, part burlesque show, part circus show, and part fashion show.
I think ‘Indiana Jones’ was a lot of fun to do because of the places we went to and the adventures and the action. But Han Solo was also a huge part of my life.
You’re just sort of searching for this ‘thing’ and sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t. All music is imperfect, but in jazz since you’re improvising, at least the way I play, I’m trying to follow my train of thought in a solo.
I played quarterback, and it was a leadership position, and even though I’m doing a solo thing now, a lot of my success is a part of assembling this team of people who are really, really talented, and their position doesn’t put them out front the way mine does, but it’s still a team effort.
That is the true joy of being a solo artist. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can show up with my guitar and my song, and it can sound a hundred different ways. That’s the freedom of being on your own. The flipside is: That’s you on the cover. If it sucks, it’s your fault.
My friend once sculpted me a bust of Admiral Ackbar from ‘Star Wars.’ He’s my favourite character in the films after Han Solo. He’s that goldfish-type alien in the white costume. ‘It’s a trap!’ I’m a big geek.
I love my regular job playing with Alice Cooper, I love doing my solo stuff, I love doing guest spots and guest tours. So I just love to play, and I’ll play with anybody that’ll have me, just about.
I wished that I could have been down there because Paul actually wanted me to do the tour with him, but then he realized that it just wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be a solo tour anymore. It would look like just half of KISS.
To be clear, I normally climb with a rope and partner. Free-soloing makes up only a small percentage of my total climbing. But when I do solo, I manage the risk through careful preparation. I don’t solo anything unless I’m sure I can do it.
I have never felt oppressed by women or that feminism is a problem. I do think boys find it hard to like things seen as feminine. I want my son not to feel self-conscious he likes ballet and my daughter to carry on playing Han Solo; that’s all.
Someone’s career that I admire would have to be Justin Timberlake’s because he started off on Disney and he made this huge film career and huge solo music career. I really respect him as an artist.
I feel I have been playing all primary characters. And if your character forms a connect with the audience, it doesn’t matter if you are playing only the main solo lead or a second lead.
I think the Journey guys wanted to be back in Journey and I wanted to be back solo.
My band got signed in high school when I was 16, and we all dropped out of high school and went on tour. Then I quit the band because I was the manager, and I was doing everything, so I went solo.
You don’t make solo albums to have hits.
I’ve actually thought very little about solo work up until just very recently.
I’m going to be doing solo stuff. The idea is to do ‘small’ and ‘off my beaten path,’ or go back to an old, beaten path – do some smaller things that I haven’t done in 15 or 20 years. Just to sort of get my feet wet, because I haven’t done my own material for a couple of years – I’ve been doing a lot of other things.
Generally, I wouldnt spend a lot of time on a solo. Id try to catch something out of the air spontaneously.
It’s silly to call me the new Ed Sheeran. He can fill stadiums as a solo artist, but I’m not like that.
I wish I started out as a solo artist.
A great solo is one that’s so frail that it actually teeters on the edge of falling apart, but doesn’t.
I didn’t want to crash into the ocean, but from watching Han Solo navigate an asteroid field to watching movies like ‘Perfect Storm,’ it would always kind of get my adrenaline up, and I knew it was something I wanted to do.
All my songs were solo voices. Just me singing. In fact, that was the gimmick – no gimmick. Just singing straight with not too much background.
I was in bands when I was younger, and that’s a lot of the reason I started working solo – it was always a compromise.
Working with the brothers can put pressure on my voice, so I choose to do my own solo thing so I can save my voice. I couldn’t do both now. The Neville Brothers is a funk band; they play loud, and I have a strong voice.
With solo shows, you have complete control over the set list. If you feel like you want to do something different or do a new song, you can just work it in. You can talk to the audience or not talk to the audience. There’s nothing that’s set.
I’m not closing the door on my solo career, but with 5th Story, if the public demand is there, then I’ll continue to work with the band. If not, we’ll all go our separate ways again.
As a solo artist, my desire is to express myself through my music.
Herb Solo at that time was the head of MGM. I said, ‘I want to live like Clint Eastwood.’ Did I know at that time Clint Eastwood, to him, Heaven was a truck, a dog, and a picnic basket for food or something?
I was terrified to go solo. It’s lonely doing it by myself. But I wanted to challenge myself.
Look closely, and you can see where the grooves of a record widen, indicating a sparseness that can only be a bass solo, or grow denser to accommodate a cresting density of sound.
On my first European solo tour, I was selling maybe 50 tickets a city until I showed up in Paris and heard the show was already at 150 tickets, which, at the time, really blew my mind and took me by complete surprise.
It was never going to be easy transitioning from a band to being a solo artist but I accepted that right from the beginning. I’m proud of my work and how I’ve evolved as artist.
As funny as it sounds, the best thing I got out of making a solo record was to realize how much I love being in a band.
The sax solo as we know it today would not exist without Gerry Rafferty. His 1978 soft-rock classic ‘Baker Street’ has to be the ‘Ulysses’ of rock & roll saxophone, giving the entire chorus over to Raphael Ravenscroft’s sax solo, creating one of the Seventies’ most enduringly creepy sounds.
I’ve always been afraid to do a solo show. When I go to see the great solo shows of Liz Callaway or Christine Ebersole, they have so many incredible stories to talk about, and their material and lives are so rich. I’ve always worried that my life was not rich enough.
I guess I always think the people that know me or fans that have followed me and know my solo work would know that I’ve always had really eclectic tastes – even in Motley, dude.
If you look at the whole time I was in the band, I only did, like, three solo albums – two, really. ‘Out Of The Cradle,’ I had already left because we’d done ‘Tango In The Night,’ and it was sort of the logical extension of crazy in terms of everyone getting ready to hit the wall with their habits.
My primary goal is to be a solo artist releasing original music.
On Ain’t No Telling I came up with the bass solo.
I auditioned for ‘Spider-Man.’ I auditioned for ‘Han Solo,’ all those big movies. I would love to do something like that.
Learning isn’t something you should only do solo.
To be honest, many of my well-wishers want me to play the solo lead in films. Maybe, it’s time to think about it. In fact, I have cut down on signing up multi-starrer films.
I am not so proud to climb all the 8,000-meter peaks, but I was proud to climb Nanga Parbat solo. That was the most elegant thing I did.
There were many times during our career when he could’ve quit and done something else. But he knew that his power was with the Grateful Dead. He didn’t want to go solo. Jerry was a groupist. He loved to group.
Zadie Smith’s ‘NW’ is keeping me company on my solo travels.
When John and I were together, and this is about a week or two before our relationship ended, I remember him saying, ‘Do you think I should write with Paul again?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. You should because you want to. The two of you as solo performers are good, but together you can’t be beaten.’
I’ve actually thought very little about solo work up until just very recently. Most of it is because in my band, Incubus, it is very much a collaborative effort. I do what I do in the band, and everyone plays their respective parts, but in the end, we are sort of a democratic process.
