Top 66 John Waite Quotes

But I’ll never write another Missing You’ again as long as I live. I hope that I’ll write a good song, but I don’t think that I’ll be able to write another song that will reach people that much.

I’ve always loved Country, folk, and the acoustic end of music.

I think the Journey guys wanted to be back in Journey and I wanted to be back solo.

When we’re out touring, we often go to clubs to see people play. The alternative is to go back to the hotel And that’s no good.

Being raise in England, we were all raised on blues and country.

The only thing about rock n’ roll in my house is a couple of paintings of Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan – and they were expensive, too.

We’ll just tour til we drop; at certain times in your life, that’s the only answer.

I thought my wife and I would grow old together, but it just didn’t work out.

Coming off the back of the live album, there was a certain edginess and an almost punk energy that I’ve missed for a while.

I always thought I could do it, have an across-the-board big record.

When you’re playing rock music to 10,000 people, you almost attack the audience. When you play acoustic you’re waiting for the audience to respond. It’s a reverse energy, and you’re more vulnerable. It’s really intense.

After Bad English, I made three albums back-to-back that I still think is my best work, but it wasn’t meant to be toured.

I think rock ‘n’ roll is very visual. All of the best bands, like The Stones, The Who and Small Faces, were very valid both musically and visually.

I really expected things to be different. But being in Bad English was too much of a compromise. Instead of being true to the artistic side, there was this incredible pressure to keep producing the same kind of hits.

I was hanging around New York, getting used to being on the street. I didn’t have any friends I didn’t know anybody at that point.

When you play live, everything goes up.

I think the stuff that’s very spontaneous, not contrived at all, is the stuff that works.

You might be talking to someone who relates a song to losing a friend and you end up talking in the most intimate way. You can get so engaged that you end up in this existential conversation.

I liked Western country, like cowboy songs, when I was a little kid. Then I developed a taste for Hank Williams and those sort of songs as I got a little bit older.

I mean, I hate to say it, but I listen to Journey and think, ‘Jesus Christ, that is just wrong.’ That’s why there will never be a Bad English reunion. It’s for super white people listening to super white music.

I don’t even have any of my gold records on my walls at home. They’re all in storage.

You know, the European record labels always say, ‘We want 12 songs and then we want bonus songs,’ and you’re going, ‘What for? Why?’ That’s not a record.

I wanted to write music that would be around for a long time.

It’s amazing what the acoustic guitar can bring to the picture.

Missing You’ almost didn’t get on the No Brakes’ album, because the record company said, ‘The album’s finished. We don’t need any more songs.’

I’ve been away writing songs and recording and doing albums that are much more obscure.

So much of your life is wrapped up in the songs. All the twists come back, and you go back to that place when you were singing it. It’s like reading your own diary and being in a time machine.

Rock n’ roll is closest thing I’ve got to a spiritual power. It’s been the higher voice in my life and it’s never let me down.

It was a free-for-all; the BBC wouldn’t play anything so we had pirate radio playing the African-American music and the Beatles and greats like Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson and Motown’s Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Otis Redding.

There’s a lot of compromises, but that’s what a great record should be, really.

It’ always so sad to see people spend the rest of their careers just trying to repeat the formula.

People wanted to know where I was and what I was doing. Was I still recording? Was I touring? Was I putting a band together? Was I writing songs? Was I even still singing?

I’ve never had a plan.

You shouldn’t have to follow fashion to make music.

In my world, I like everything stripped down, something that’s really truthful.

Television really does give you tremendous exposure in America.

When you’re up there acoustically you’re thinking, How could I possibly go back to rock?’ Then when I’m playing rock I think, How can I ever go back to being unplugged?’ That’s what makes it fun all of the time.

There’s that Bob Dylan quote: ‘He who’s not busy being born is busy dying.’ That’s a great line. And I really believe that.

I tend to scribble down notes, lyrics or just random thoughts on pieces of paper, backs of cigarette packs, sometimes on my shirt cuff.

All the songs I’ve written, if they don’t sound good on acoustic guitar, they won’t sound good at 11.

I was going to be a painter. I went to art school – but every 16-year-old wants to be a painter.

I mean, I really hung in there for as long as I could. I was working 18 hours a day on songs and singing.

We had huge success at first – really, really big. You could not turn on AM radio and not hear ‘Every Time I Think of You.’ And you couldn’t turn on FM radio and not hear ‘Head First.’ And they were both on the same record.

I don’t like studio-manicured things.

I booked time in Philly Sound, which is an old church in south Philly that has a studio to the side of it that holds about 350 people. On the radio, we announced a free gig, bought about three kegs of beer. That got the audience slightly off of their legs, and we rocked the house.

You don’t have to keep trying to sound like your last song. There’s new things to do.

In the end, it’s always about the three-piece band and the singer.

‘When I See You Smile’ – that was not what we should have been doing in Bad English.

My heart’s in New York City. But you can’t live that pace forever.

I usually license my stuff to a label. Make the album, license it to a big label and get it back after four years.

If something feels right, then just do it.

I don’t know really, apart from Barnes & Noble, where you buy CDs anymore.

To me, The Hard Way’ is as raw and vital as anything I was doing when I first started only its way better!

I was staring at a wall of photos and thought, ‘What would that sound like if it was music?’ And I guess that was the kicker. That’s what got me going.

There’s an easy way to tell if you have a good song. You get hit in the head with a message, and you get hit in the feet with a rhythm. You’re beaten up with music. It’s a beautiful thing when that happens.

Country was always in the background, but now it’s the voice of the people. That’s what the people want to sing, you know? I’m really thrilled to be a part of it.

I just tried to disappear and write songs.

I like imperfection.

Rock seems a little bit redundant now because it really is what country is. It’s the voice of America and rock ‘n’ roll used to be that.

Songs, and songwriting keeps me inspired, moving forward.

I may not be top of the pops’ anymore, but I seem to still be making a big impact.

You can’t keep going back to Detroit because you’re big in Detroit. You can go maybe once a year and sell it out because everybody loves you and looks forward to seeing you again. You can’t go back twice in the same year.

Heavy metal these days is what I call wimpy.

When I think of a song, I think of it as a beast. You chase these beasts around the room and try to grab them and put them in a tape machine. But they’re slippery, and they run away a lot.

You know, I still find music as inspiring and exciting as I did when I was 15.

I find it incredibly annoying to just go out and sing the old stuff and write songs that sound like the old stuff.