I’m a really good team player. That’s what it takes to work in the theater. That’s what it takes to work in a band with musicians and writers.
I was just a music lover who wondered what it would sound like if Otis Redding strapped on a guitar and played in a punk band. That’s it.
No band is special, no player royalty.
We started with Denny Cordell, and he was a great record producer. He knew exactly how to take a band that knew absolutely nothing, and guide you without trying to tell you what to do.
At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.
Actually, when I was in elementary school, I saw a saxophone. A band came to my school, and I saw this guy get up and play this solo. And I said, ‘Oh man, what is that! That must be fantastic!’
We got a chance to go and play in some places that the usual European tour by an American band didn’t go to.
The great thing about rock-n-roll is you realize the top of the mountain is big enough for more than one band.
I also remember the second band I was in ever. We were called Hybrid. We got a show at this local street fair, and we were playing on the back of a flatbed truck. There was an ad in the paper, and it said that ‘Hybird’ is playing. I was so mad.
Guitar gigs were everywhere in the ’50s, and I started diddling around so I could keep working. Playing honky-tonk, simple stuff. I took a few gigs with an organ band that put me out front.
I sometimes think it’s like a weird elastic band. The more tragic your work is, the quicker you snap back. There’s a catharsis in telling a miserable old tale; you get rid of demons.
And there was no money in Chicago for a band.
What we aspired to in 1998, we have wildly surpassed. And I know we all feel incredibly grateful and lucky this band has been able to have the life that it’s had.
It is not very practical in today’s world when you tour all over the place having a big band.
A band is not a democracy: It’s show business.
Well, to tell you the straight honest truth, it was like a Grateful Dead cover band. I didn’t feel – and nothing against the guys – I didn’t feel that they were opening up like they should. I’ll tell you what, with guitar players, Steven has what I like in guitar players.
When I left Van Halen, I went in the studio and made a CD called Marching to Mars with all studio musicians. I did it immediately. With the disappointment riding on my shoulders of the breakup of the band.
A weird thing about Gossip that I’ve always said: ‘If I weren’t in this band, I would never listen to it.’ But I would go see it. It’s a band you would go see that you don’t necessarily listen to. We’ve always wanted to do a live album because personally, I think we’re a way better band live than on record.
It comes down to building your own world out here on the road. It’s who you surround yourself with. My band and crew are really positive guys.
As for my band, well, my mentors were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, and no one had a band more smartly dressed than Duke.
The band was rejuvenated by that wonderful day. It breathed new life into us.
I trained for the drums for about two weeks, and then rocking out in front of an entire crowd was sort of like a dream come true. And now, Guitar Hero, I can’t do that anymore. It’s nothing like doing it on stage. I kinda wish I had a fake band, and we could go on tour.
I am Evanescence. I am the only original member. I have basically hired the band. Evanescence has become me. It is mine and it’s exactly how I want it to be.
I like something simple and traditional, like dinner and a movie. The best way to get to know someone is to have a conversation over dinner. And steak houses have a nice atmosphere – the lights are dim, and they usually have a band playing.
I was going to be a musician, no matter what it took. I supported myself with blue-collared jobs so I could write music and be in a band and play shows. I even got into an underground art scene. I was going to do whatever.
When you’re up against an electric band like that, it’s like you’re on two separate planets.
Steven Adler and I played football in the street when we were 12. I remember rehearsing in my bedroom with my first band, and some kid climbed over the fence of my backyard and peeked his head in the window to see who was rocking. It was Slash.
Being in a band is very much like a startup. You start in a garage. You hope to get interest from investors, like a major record label.
I really believe that we’re a studio-based band, and I have always thought that.
I’ve got quite a big gay following. I played a lesbian prostitute in the TV series ‘Band Of Gold’ but I think my following really grew when I played one in the film ‘Imagine Me & You,’ with Piper Perabo.
‘Band Played On’ is a good one. Barbara Orbison, who was Roy’s wife, was involved in publishing in Nashville because she oversaw Roy’s publishing, and she had a company in Nashville. She had a whole bunch of writers assembled, and they got together every day and wrote, and they write for everybody in Nashville.
I only went a year to high school. I should have been in high school, but I was in a band, and when you’re successful doing that – well, you aren’t too likely to go back.
I’m also performing regularly in Southern California with two bands. As a solo artist doing acoustic sets and a member of the Jenerators, my rock n roll band that has been around for a long time now.
At fourteen or fifteen, I decided to earn my living when I grew up playing drums made from wooden beer kegs and leading a group called Keg Brando and His Kegliners. We organized a little band, but it didn’t last long and didn’t make any money.
After all, in today’s music scene every band seems to steal from other bands.
I think if I wasn’t a musician, I would be a high-school band director or orchestra director. I like working with large groups of musicians and bringing out the dynamics and accomplishing something as a team.
It was my band. I organized the band and Dizzy was in the band. Dizzy was the first musical director with the band. Charlie Parker was in the band. But, no, no, that was my band.
I didn’t realize Metallica was as big as they were. I just thought it was my buddy Kirk’s band – we went to high school together. I wasn’t really following metal.
The weapons were conceived and created by a small band of physicists and chemists; they remain a cataclysmic threat to the whole of human society and the natural environment.
The band’s filter, but playing live is a lot of fun.
Just because you put super great musicians together, it doesn’t mean you’re going to have that chemistry as a band.
In the long term, we want to become a band that everybody remembers.
I think everybody had difficulties with that dynamic, turning the family into a band and being constantly together. So everybody, as individuals. had things to sort out.
The thing about a band is, it’s not so much how good the musicians are – it’s the blend of personalities and characters. It’s the human chemistry that makes up a good team.
We had always been a real band; Heart was never a construct.
At the end of the day, though, the band members have to be strong. It’s down to the individuals in the unit. Listen to me, I’m talking like I’m in the army and this is my squadron.
The Alanis Morissette tour, everybody thinks that was all sitting around, lighting candles and talking intelligently about synergy and big words. That band was so gnarly. We were such scumbags. Alanis had no idea. We were like Van Halen.
I’ve never understood musicians who don’t enjoy doing promotional interviews. I just can’t believe it. I always think, ‘Your life must have been so brilliant before you were in a band.’
Instead of going out and shooting people, why don’t you go start a band.
I always knew I’d be in music in some sort of capacity. I didn’t know if I’d be successful at it, but I knew I’d be doing something in it. Maybe get a job in a record store. Maybe even play in a band. I never got into this to be a star.
I couldn’t imagine what it’s like to be a journalist talking about music. You’re left with empty descriptions; you probably have to make up a sort of weird cocktail of band influences and references to other music to get your point across.
Edible names are what drives me as a musician. My next band will be called the Hot Dogs.
I just want to play music with a band, live.
We all enjoy the band and what we’re doing, but we know this isn’t gonna last forever.
Holy Joy were a cult ’80s band led by the wonderful songwriting genius that is Johny Brown.
Every band had their own distinctive sound, but it was pretty much dancing music and rhythmic music with a tremendous emphasis on copying the Cuban models.
After all these years, I’m finally into soccer. The World Cup is on, and my band is an international group – they’re all around me, cheering in the hotel bars.
Well, a sort of epiphany: I was in a great band. And it’s very cool to be at 53 and realise that when you were a kid you were in a great band.
They gave it to us for about five bucks a week, and we just went there to live. Probably the first band that ever did that back then and it became the famous cottage.
