Richie Sambora

I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player and a special award in 1961 for quietness.

Music is an addiction.

Jazz has always been a man telling the truth about himself.

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.

The more you listen, the more your hear.

I always liked the steel guitar. I also love the guys that play the bottleneck. But I could never do it; I never made it do what I want. So every time I would pick up the guitar, I ‘d shake my hand and trill it a bit. For some strange reason my ears would say to me that sounds similar to what those guys were doing. I can’t pick up the guitar now without doing it. So that’s how I got into making my sound. It was nothing pretty. Just trying to please myself. I heard that sound.

If it ain’t fun, I want no part of it man. That’s the reason I play.

I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

The fact that an artist is experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in it together.

I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.

One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.

I could see the blues was about survival.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

Music is the most fantastic drug there is!