Les Paul

To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren’t any.

It’s not jazz as we know jazz here in America.

Last time I saw Count Basie, he was in a wheelchair. They wheeled him up onto the stage, he sits down at the piano, and he gives the downbeat, and that band played like they were in heaven. And right in the middle, the band cuts. He had to take one hand and put the other on it, and he comes down with one note. And it was the greatest note I ever heard in my life.

I am very aware that so little has happened to the electric guitar from the time that it was conceived to now; where there are so little changes made where there should be drastic changes made. If we were to put our heads together and start thinking about modern technology we would be much more advantaged with the electric guitar than we are. I think that we’ve been stagnant for many years.

When I started playing, I was playing just the harmonica. We’re back in the prohibition days. Like down a dark alley somewhere, you’d play for an illegal club that was probably right behind a police station, and what I’d do is sing and play the harmonica. It didn’t take me long to work out that I needed something more, and that was the guitar. So when you added the guitar, the harmonica and my voice, you would be talking with people mainly in the bar, or in the restaurant, or the people in the pub.

It’s not technique — it’s what you have to say.

If you understood everything I say, you’d be me!

Man, if you gotta ask you’ll never know.

I don’t care about the rules, if I don’t break the rules at least 10x every song then I’m not doing my job.

Don’t bullshit, just play.

Miles Davis was a part of my life from 1947 on. I was born in 1941 and I first heard him in 1947 on a 78 rpm. And then I followed his career, starting with his first solo album in 1951. He was an icon and inspiration and a mentor to me.

Art is a subject that is inundated with opinions. In fact, that’s all it is about is opinions.

I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light. Then I’m grateful.

Vocalists must study music and know everything an instrumentalist needs to know.

You know at an early age if you have a talent for music.

I regard singing pretty much like acting. Each song is like playing a different role. I get very involved with my material. I feel a responsibility for the emotion it brings out in the listener.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

The radio makes hideous sounds.

When you just get mixed up and there’s too much going on, then it’s time to pick up your guitar.

I’m just trying to create context for me to improve my musicianship.

There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.