I’m not terribly happy about rock and roll. Certain rock music is uninspiring, numbing; it makes you feel like an idiot.
‘Star Wars’ is such a phenomenal global supernova that anything that gets said about it becomes kind of fact and gospel, and then taken by the legions of fans who are so excited to have more ‘Star Wars,’ that they roll off on all sorts of flights of fancy.
To me, rock and roll is like an ethos or a state of mind.
If your album sells, that’s cool, more people find out about you, more people get turned on to what we’re really about-which is a live rock and roll band.
Initially, electronic music was anti-establishment, as punk rock and rock n’ roll were. The music was shut down; the police were against the parties.
We can’t afford to see Afghanistan roll backwards into a failed state that could become a base from which terrorist campaigns can be launched anywhere in the world.
And, as soon as I could put together the, you know, three or four notes that made up, like, sort of a rock and roll lick, you know, like a Chuck Berry kind of thing, I was off and running. Just completely taken over.
Outcome is simply the final score: Who won the game; what numbers came up in a roll of the dice; how high did a stock go. Outcome is the result, regardless of the method used to achieve it. It is not controllable.
The important thing is to build up my cardiovascular system, so I have the stamina to do stunts. To me, stepping over the line, taking a chance and succeeding is the ultimate freedom, be it in rock and roll or when executing a really challenging routine.
It was a source of shame for my family that I was in rock and roll, which is so blue-collar. It just isn’t done. And I felt it, too.
I don’t think there’s any such thing as rock n’ roll anymore – it’s an amalgamation of business interests.
I’ve seen inside fans’ houses, and they would have pictures of Jesus on the wall, and next to it would be a picture of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. That’s no lie.
As I discovered music, especially Rock ‘n Roll, new territory was opened to me. I was lured by the unbridled rhythm of this art form. It was like gasoline on the fire of my youthful spirit.
Deep Purple definitely belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ‘Cause they had great songs, great musicianship, they had an impact, and they’re a huge influence on the heavy metal community as a whole.
There may well be writers who roll up their sleeves and say, ‘I’m going to write a post-9/11 novel’ but I wasn’t one of those.
So yeah, I play the piano for most of the show, but I like rock and roll.
After my first video, I went out and had chicken noodle soup with my sister and manager. We were like, ‘How rock n’ roll are we? Celebrating the first video with chicken soup.’
Growing up, I never listened to English music. I was more into Motown, as well as early rock n’ roll like Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
Originally, what we call rock ‘n’ roll was nothing more than an attempt of very bad white performers to sound like black rhythm-and-blues performers. They did their best to emulate, they did their best to paraphrase. And that started what later became rock ‘n’ roll.
It’s fun to look at people that are so good at acting that aren’t actors, like David Bowie creating a mystique about rock n’ roll. I’ve listened to ‘Ziggy Stardust’ as much as any rock n’ roll fan – I don’t really know what it’s about, but it sure is fun to think about David Bowie as this mad creation.
Blues is a big part of rock and roll. The best rock and roll got its birth in the blues. You hear it in Little Richard and Chuck Berry.
There will never be another Freddie Mercury, one of the greatest rock and roll singers.
Well, all rock and roll is based in artifice.
Rock n’ roll is for the young idiots, not an old fart like me.
Now I’m way into suits that I can put on whether I took a shower or not, and wear barefoot and paint my toes black or whatever color the suit is. It’s very cool to wear suits like that. Roll up the sleeves and just say yee-haw.
Sex and drugs and rock and roll.
I think the world is ready for some rock ‘n’ roll. Some real time guys that play their own instruments, write their own songs, and sing the music and have a good time doing it.
I prefer a three-piece suit myself. Very sixties rock and roll. But they’re not too quirky. Businessmen could wear them.
I use something that is a real staple in the directing world. It’s called a dance floor. You lay it down so that it’s so smooth you can roll around, and you can put furniture on top of it. It’s seamless and you don’t see it.
It’s a roll of the dice in the movie business. I mean, every single movie is a roll of the dice. Any movie on paper could look like it’s going to be fantastic. You know what I mean?
I had never done TV. I think it’s a foolish medium for, most rock ‘n roll music. Nobody ever comes off well on TV.
In racing, I wanted to be a winner and to be a winner, you have to be willing to roll the dice.
Democracy can tie your hands in a rock ‘n’ roll band, you know? It can be a great thing, but if you’ve got a certain amount of vision and you write a lot of songs, it’s sometimes better to have your own band and make your own decisions.
If the Police could do a reunion… One of the biggest jerks I ever met was Sting. If he can do it, then anyone can do it. It’s not that big a deal. And the Eagles! They did it! They severely hated each other. It’s just rock and roll.
I’m not someone who gets to play The O2 and places like that, but that’s the kind of rock and roll venue. The popularity of stand-up means that some people are getting to play rock star venues.
People hear a powerful female singer in a rock and roll band, and they say, ‘Janis Joplin.’ I think people just make that comparison because it’s easy. But I don’t think I sound like her at all.
I think good artists know when they’re on a roll, and they recognize when lightning is striking. It’s a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is marketing. You’ve got a bunch of faceless people in a back room who trademark a name that sounds very official. Well, if you had thought of it first, you would have been the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
My influences in this world have always been Crazy Horse and Malcolm X, my overall influences. But I was influenced by rock n’ roll, blues, and country music. I was influenced by singers.
What are the symbols of American strength, wealth, power and modernity? Certainly not jazz and rock and roll, not chewing-gum or hamburgers, Broadway or Hollywood. It’s their skyscrapers. Their Pentagon. Their science. Their technology.
I always wanted to be an actor, but with a speech impediment it’s kind of tough. I decided to roll the dice and take an acting class, which was very, very nerve-wracking… my stomach would just be in knots.
My dad is a huge rock and roll lead guitar fan. I didn’t even really know that until recently. Everything has to have a guitar solo in it.
Black people created rock music, it’s a fact. Black people created bluegrass and rock and roll way before Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
And ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ was a very transitional film for me in that I was one of the producers and you know, came up with the idea with the writer and the producer, as well. But, it was a very collaborative event. You know, I really love working in that way.
The Beatles never sounded intimidated by their idols. They never interpreted old rock; they simply played it as well and as joyfully as they knew how. On ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ John Lennon does nothing but interpret old rock.
Rock n’ roll is dirty, and it’s bad, and it’s either clever or it’s not clever.
Big Star invented a vision of bohemian rock & roll cool that had nothing to do with New York, Los Angeles or London, which made them completely out of style in the 1970s, but also made them an inspiration to generations of weird Southern kids.
Kane is a band I formed with my best friend Steve Carlson. We just got together and started playing guitar. He was playing some old school rock and roll, and we got together and thought, ‘Hey, let’s take this on the road.’
I’m not dissatisfied with my place in it rock ‘n’ roll.
This is the rock ‘n’ roll life, and you had to invent it as you went along. There was no textbook to say how you operate this machinery.
I never thought a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland or anywhere else was a good idea.
There’s rock n’ roll in hip-hop, there’s rock n’ roll in pop music, there’s rock n’ roll in soul, there’s rock n’ roll in country. When you see people dress, and their style has an edge to it, that rebellious edge that bubbles up in every genre, that’s rock n’ roll. Everybody still wants to be a rock star, you know?
Wherever we roll, it didn’t really matter, chicks would come to me no matter what. Even before anything. But a lot of the time when it doesn’t happen, you have more fun anyway, because you can hang out with your boys.
I don’t think I’m turning back the clock by doing these old tunes. I love rock and roll and popular music. It’s just that the spirits of the singers whose songs I do are living within me. That’s why the songs come out in the voices of the original singers. I’m not doing imitations. That’s the way they sound inside me.
