Mike Stern

The deeper you get into the music allows the ability to appreciate art and all other forms of expression.

I want people to walk away with the same joy, hope and love that I put into my music.

Sometimes there are no gigs, but the main thing is still the music.

Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was.

It’s all music.

Music activates the brain at a high level.

What kills me is that everybody thinks I like Jazz.

Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are.

Jazz is the sound of surprise.

What don’t I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain’t nobody here saying, ‘You’d better learn this.’ But I still think I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me.

I feel I have only scratched the surface of what I know I am capable of doing.

[on B. B. King] Very seldom does he talks about the way he play, man. He always wanna talk about young women. And I fuss at him sometimes, I say, ‘Man I wanna know what did you do here!’

Music washes away the dust of every day life.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

Paint pictures with sound. First, find your white-the deepest, roundest sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your black-which is the most extreme tonal difference from white you can play. Now, just pick the note where you’ve got white, pick it where you’ve got black, and then find all those colors in between. Get those colors down, and you’ll be able to express almost any emotion on the guitar.?

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.

..I wanted to create music that was so different that my mother could tell me from anyone else.

A guitar is something you can hold and love and it’s never going to bug you. But here’s the secret about the guitar – it’s defiant. It will never let you conquer it. The more you get involved with it, the more you realize how little you know.