Quotes

“I think I deliberately sold out a couple of times. I picked the songs that I thought would do well in the marketplace, even though I didn't really love the song.” Eric Clapton

“I tried when I was 13, when my grandparents gave me an acoustic guitar, and I tried for a year. It hurt so much to play. I mean, the fingertips hurt so much, I gave up.” Eric Clapton

“I used to do crazy things that people would bail me out of, and I'm just grateful that I survived. But the music got very lost; I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. I was more into just having a good time, and I think it showed.” Eric Clapton

“I'm not a big fan of lead vocalists, people who sing but don't play. I never wanted to be in a band where the guy who was up front just sang. I've always thought it better when one of the musicians sings, like Steve Winwood.” Eric Clapton

“It was a mystery to me, how the tuning was, or the style seemed to come out of nowhere, it obviously had roots in America going way back, there was nothing like it for me I'd ever seen before.” Eric Clapton

“It's taken me to be an older guy, an old man, to have an old man's voice. Because I only liked old men's voices. As a kid, I didn't like pip-squeaked singers.” Eric Clapton

“It's very dependent on your state of mind. And your emotional state as well. And a lot of it comes pouring out, you don't really have that much control with it.” Eric Clapton

“Leave bands, go back to obscurity if I choose to, without a great sense of loss of security because it's all been based on the fact that I did it on my own or was doing, enjoying doing it on my own in the first place.” Eric Clapton

“Music became a healer for me. And I learned to listen with all my being. I found that it could wipe away all the emotions of fear and confusion relating to my family.” Eric Clapton

“My dedication to my music has driven everyone away. I've had girlfriends, but I always end up on my own. I don't particularly like it, but I don't see a way 'round it.” Eric Clapton

“My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice.” Eric Clapton

“The first guitar I ever had was a gut-string Spanish guitar, and I couldn't really get the hang of it. I was only 13, and I talked my grandparents into buying it for me. I tried and tried and tried, but got nowhere with it.” Eric Clapton

“The first one was quite cheap, but that was expensive for us. For my folks to buy on the Never Never. It was quite, you know, a rare object to have and I gained quite a lot of status by having this.” Eric Clapton

“They looked great, you know the drawings of the guys playing looked great and bits of string around their necks. So it didn't seem to be that difficult a thing to do, or that inaccessible.” Eric Clapton

“Very much like that, and very much a loner, do you know and I didn't fit really into sport or all kind of group activities as a kid, I couldn't find a niche. And music was not really part of the kind of village curriculum it would, you know.” Eric Clapton

“When you're onstage with an electric band going through a massive P.A. system, it's very artificial. You can't really hear your own voice as it comes out of your mouth.” Eric Clapton

“Yeah, and I went straight into a fantasy world. Just stepped straight into the abyss. You know, I was gone and kids used to walk past my front room, cause I lived on the green.” Eric Clapton

“Yeah, I wanted to know where they got it from, what it was all about, you know, and it seemed to strike something in me that was you know rearing it's head and I still don't know what that is.” Eric Clapton

“I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds.” Dizzy Gillespie

“It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.” Dizzy Gillespie

“Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that.” Dizzy Gillespie

“I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we're here is to be a part of this process of exchange.” Dizzy Gillespie

“How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don't you ask him? And besides, maybe we'd all like to be like Miles, and just haven't got the guts.” Dizzy Gillespie

“I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.” Dizzy Gillespie

“They're not particular about whether you're playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.” Dizzy Gillespie

“I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It's time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It's time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.” Dizzy Gillespie

“Music is always changing and the changes are unpredictable.” Billy Sheehan

“I gave up a lot of things in exchange for my success.” Billy Sheehan

“I didn't follow the standard rules of bass playing, and many musicians on many different instruments who became noteworthy for their unique or particular style did a very similar thing.” Billy Sheehan

“And no again: My studio is not a first or any step toward becoming any type of businessman on my part.” Billy Sheehan