I'm sure if we had made an album that was more traditional would have been released immediately. When we actually play this music on stage and people become familiar with it, it will become more popular.

I've never stopped learning.

The Stones are a different kind of group. I realized that when I joined them. It's not really so much their musical ability, it's just they have a certain kind of style and attitude which is unique.

I do to keep things sounding fresh. Sometimes just changing the running order of the show is a good idea.

I was very influenced by Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, both of whom I had the pleasure of playing with and becoming friends with.

I've written lots of songs on the piano. My mother had a piano and it was the first instrument I played.

I never advise anyone to sacrifice something else because of music, but then I don't see why they would have to anyway.

What I've always lacked is a really strong band to back me up.

I had to learn chord shapes. I bought books with chord charts. I used to listen to all kinds of pop music.

I'm sure if we had made an album that was more traditional would have been released immediately. When we actually play this music on stage and people become familiar with it, it will become more popular.

I do remember actually learning chords to Beatles songs. I thought they were great songwriters.

It's frustrating actually, the time involved in getting something released these days. My new CD has actually been finished for a year. It's only now that it's being released.

I have a really good band, and just returned from a short tour in California. It hasn't always gone that well.

I suppose because I have a good ear, I could pick out harmonies and learn by ear. I still think that you have to have an ear for music to really be able to feel and understand what you're playing. You can learn by watching and listening to other people.

I didn't think of myself as a lead player, especially when we did live shows, because me and Keith used to switch around all the time. He'd take a lead, I'd play rhythm. Sometimes even within one song. It wasn't strict and regimented.

I certainly want to get back to the U.S. to play. It's such a big country. I've always liked playing there, and enjoyed living there. I lived in New York, LA, and Florida.

The Stones don't really need to do it for money, so they must get some kind of pleasure out of it. They're not like a group that's disbanded and gone away and made a comeback. They've always been there.

It's nice to finally have a CD out which reflects my songwriting, my singing and the band that I have.

I play the piano a lot at home. I write songs on the piano and guitar. I would like to actually play piano on stage. I don't think I'll get the chance for a while.

It's sometimes impossible to fit in all the music we want to fit in, in an hour and 45 minute show.

Altamont... I remember all of that. That was an awful day.

Blues music is becoming more and more popular than it ever was. I'm always meeting people on the road that are really young, and are guitar players. male and female.

I don't know why, but I never felt I was gonna stay with the Stones forever, even right from the beginning.

If it wasn't for Mick, the group would've fallen apart a long time ago.

If you've been playing for a few years, especially in a group context, you'll see if you have the ability or the passion to want to carry on. It's something that you have to be dedicated to and you've got to love, no matter what happens.

Maybe if I go far enough back into my ancestry, I have African roots or something. I've got no idea.

The Beatles and The Stones were basically inspired by American Rhythm and Blues.

These days there's so much technology and ways you can learn. There are videos and CD roms.

It's not rubbish to say that I was a bit peeved about not getting credit for a couple of songs, but that wasn't the whole reason. I guess I just felt like I had enough. I decided to leave and start a group with Jack Bruce.

The Blues scene now is international. In the '50s it was purely something that you would hear in black clubs, played by black musicians, especially in America. But from the '60s onwards it changed.

The most important thing is to follow your instinct and get involved with some friends who have similar tastes and aspirations and like music as much as you do.

When you use music to worship you are not attempting to entertain.

Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away.

When I did the record, I was coming off a time when my contract had been sold and the music industry had changed a lot. I didn't understand how to make records for big labels. I was waiting for a new kind of record label to emerge.

You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

Whether I'm doing music or I'm walking down the street or I'm in a record store buying a record or I walk into a comic store and I'm buying comics or having a drink with my friends, it's the same me.

When rock came along the lyrics and melodies became less important and it bothered me to think that perhaps they might not regain the value they have to music - they are music.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

The kind of music or the kind of arrangements that I do, the kind of musicians I choose, is just what I like to hear.

If not for music, I would probably be a very frustrated scientist. It's one way to answer the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' I feel music answers it better.

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to Europe.

My singing is my hobby. It's me and my brother. We just enjoy writing music.

I was determined to carve out a music of my own. I didn't want to copy anybody.

I have tried to make the music a bit easier for them to understand.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

That music and the lyrical aspects of Razorblade Romance is so personal to me that, now with me being grown up a bit and meeting new people and doing new things, it makes me look at the same things I was writing about back in the day through a different colored lens.

The only time I would like to see was the 20s and 30s in America because I love the music and the style and the optimism, I wanted to see New York being built. I wanted to see all that, you know.