Tommy Shaw Quotes
-
I have always been a sucker for the big, upbeat chorus.
-
As a solo artist, I just felt cemented in front of the mike stand. There was very little time to play with the audience and be a band member.
-
I soon gave up instruction for self-teaching.
-
On acoustic guitar I tend to stay in the key of D for some reason. On electric guitar I keep basic: C, G, D, and A. The key of D minor is also real good for me.
-
When a song gets its legs and begins to come to me, this is the euphoric hook that keeps me wanting to continue.
-
Around '75 when the recession hit, club owners started going to disco because it was cheaper for them to just buy a sound system than it was to hire a band.
-
There were some older guitarists on my side of town, and I got to know many of them.
-
When I was about 3, my grandfather used to give me and my sister a nickel to sit out on the front porch with him and sing songs.
-
I don't like looking back.
-
I wish I had a nickel for every song that I've left in the bathroom, written down on a matchbox, or just totally forgotten about.
-
You can have fun, but you also have to put on your thinking cap every day.
-
I like being on the road, living in hotels. While I've got a real nice house, I go crazy when I'm there.
-
If I have an idea, I write it down, although I usually carry a little dictation machine with me because I'm too lazy to write.
-
Success is fickle, but creativity is a gift.
-
When you sign with a label, they do insist upon certain rights, and if you have a competent attorney, your rights will be protected.
-
I've always stuck with Gibsons. I've had Guilds and Fenders, too, but I always wind up going back to Gibsons.
-
I wrote songs all my life, where anyone wanted to hear them or not.
-
I never did heroin, because I thought that meant I was doing heavy drugs, which shows you the insanity of doing drugs. I probably should have done heroin, because I understand heroin actually makes you feel good. Cocaine just makes you stupid.
-
If music became extinct now, I dont know what Id be good for.
-
I remember my first moment onstage was at a 4-H contest at the Pratville Junior High School cafeteria auditorium around 1965. I had my first electric, a Silvertone with the amp built into the case, and I won first prize.
-
I love the idea of stepping out of the band situation into a solo world with no boundaries, no expectations, where nothing is out of bounds.
-
Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.
-
I feel like I have the greatest life an artist could dream of.
-
By the time I did that third solo album, I'd finally learned how to do it, but I'd also learned that I liked being in a band.