You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me.

The Band never really played big concert tours. We never sold millions and millions of albums.

I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades.

I never subscribe to the stay-at-home policy. I'm not sick of the road or sick of eating in good restaurants around the country. I like to travel.

I've had all the lessons I could get. I've learned from everybody I've ever met.

The way to do it is to put as much life into the song as I can. You can either get it to breathe or you can't.

Good times don't last long sometimes.

I like to get within handshaking distance of the crowd. If it happens, they know it, we know it, and that's all we came here for.

The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did.

The rock star stuff never came up for us. The Band was never attacked by groupies before, during or after any show that we ever played.

Well, somebody's got to sing. They won't hire you unless you sing.

Don't we all want what's best for each other?

A friend of mine took me to Memphis advised me that I should get in the musicians' union. He gave me a set of drums and said, Stay on the job, son.

I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear.

Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it.

Forever Young, by Dylan, is one of my favorite songs.

With horns and a full rhythm section, the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.

We all love musical architecture; there's no doubt about that.

Lord, when the song wants to pick up and go a little faster towards the end, it's hard for me to resist.

If you pour some music on whatever's wrong, it'll sure help out.

By the time The Band did The Last Waltz, the chemistry had changed, and it wasn't a thrill anymore to live that studio kind of life.

I like walking on the edge.

There were no rules, other than that the song should sound good and be fun to play.

When the second record came out, they started calling it The Band. I voted to call it The Crackers. I'm no fool.

My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I'm home.

Drums usually seem to tune themselves.

I don't fool with a lot of things that I can't have fun with. There's not much reward in that.

If things are going slow, I'm itchy.

I played some Yamaha drums that I like a lot. And I like the Yamaha people a lot too. They've been really nice to me and The Band.

Anytime I switch to another instrument, I immediately turn it into another kind of drum so that I can understand it better.

The crowd is just as important as the group. It takes everything to make it work.

Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.

If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.

We're all dealt with the same hand here, so to speak. I feel like I've had it a lot better than most people. I've had the opportunity to travel and play music all my life.

You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it.

Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian.

I don't think I'm a millionaire, but I'm comfortable.

I've always thought it was easier for girls to sing harmonies because their voices can go to that higher plane so much more easy than a male voice.

With horns and a full rhythm section the drums always looked like the best seat in the house.

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.

Then, in that hour of deliverance, my heart spoke. Does not such a country, and such defenders of their country, deserve a song?

If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.

But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.

I guess a good song is a good song is a good song, ya know.

In the past 3-4 years I've developed a habit of keeping numerous small cassette recorders in my house and in a bag with me so that I'm able to commit to tape memory song ideas on a constant basis.

I don't ask for the meaning of the song of a bird or the rising of the sun on a misty morning. There they are, and they are beautiful.

The band set up in January and just started rehearsing. If there was a song, we'd just rehearse it as a band, and it would get arranged as a band, and it got changed around a lot.