Stevie Ray Vaughan was very intense. Maybe that's what caught everybody's attention. As a player, he didn't do anything amazing.

Johnny Winter is one of the best blues players in the world. He's very underrated.

I had given up the guitar between '75 and '78. I completely lost interest. I was sick of hearing other guitar players and I was tired of my tunes.

I'm not good enough, technically, to be a classic musician. I lack discipline.

I was impressed by Hendrix. His attitude was brilliant. Even the way he walked was amazing.

I'm not into that Keith Richard trip of having all those guitars in different tunings. I never liked the Rolling Stones much anyway.

I like leaping around on stage as long as it's done with class. None of this jumping up in the air and doing the splits.

When you're around someone good, your own standards are raised.

But you have to give your whole life to a cello. When I realized that, I went back to the guitar and just turned the volume up a bit louder.

Those record companies don't know what's happening at all.

I was impressed by Hendrix. Not so much by his playing, as his attitude - he wasn't a great player, but everything else about him was brilliant.

Jimi... He was the gov'nor and that's it. He was brilliant, wasn't he?

What's the point of re-releasing an album? The original sounded good, why change something about it?

Learning to play with a big amplifier is like trying to control an elephant.

I don't use the twang bar anymore. It's become too popular.

I have never met one person who likes Grand Funk.

I feel like I own the stage.

Pete Townshend used to crash chords and let the guitar feed back. He's overrated.

If a ballet dancer falls over, it's knowing how to get out looking clumsy that counts.

I criticize my own work pretty harshly.

I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won't do a thing for me, if he's not playing electrically. But Jeff Beck's great to listen to.

The only way you can get good, unless you're a genius, is to copy. That's the best thing. Just steal.

I can do the old hand vibrato just fine, but I like attacking the strings.

I can never remember what I do even in the studio.

When you're recording, if you're not really clean in your playing, it sounds like a mess.

If you can play well in the studio, you can play well on stage.

I don't put myself on Jeff Beck's level, but I can relate to him when he says he'd rather be working on his car collection than playing the guitar.

Playing a Fender is an art itself. They're always going out of tune.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was very intense. Maybe that's what caught everybody's attention. As a player, he didn't do anything amazing.

I can imagine that Rod Stewart likes giving autographs because he's pure showbusiness.

I'm very moved by Renaissance music, but I still love to play hard rock - though only if it's sophisticated and has some thought behind it.

Session work makes you more strict. You can't hit notes all over the place. You've got to make each one really count.

The cello is such a melancholy instrument, such an isolated, miserable instrument.

Simplicity is the key.

When something is not good, it's bad. Period.

Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and I wanted to be a hard rock band - we wanted to play rock and roll only.

I've always played every amp I've ever had full up, because rock and roll is supposed to be played loud. Also, that's how you get your sustain.

Everything I do is usually totally spontaneous.

I don't see myself as such an important guitarist.

When you've toured for about 10 years like me, you end up feeling like you're always waiting for somebody or something. The whole day is a drag.

When I was 20, I didn't give a damn about song construction. I just wanted to make as much noise and play as fast and as loud as possible.

I however don't go to clubs to show off and to be seen, and certainly not to make statements. I just want to be able to quietly watch a band.

Combing my hair doesn't make me a better musician.

They used to complain at school that I looked out of the window for long periods of time - that sums up my life. I like to look out the window, do nothing, daydream.

The cello is such a melancholy instrument such an isolated miserable instrument.

The bronze powder business, however, no longer required my personal attention, and was well managed by those I had chosen as the guardians of a secret, which was long and honourably kept.

The kinds of shows that seem to work now, the comedy shows, are those which require very little attention. They're superficial and I like articulate comedy.

The constant attention is what is so difficult.

As a scientist, my attention became totally focused on global warming some 15 years ago by the elegant and powerful measurements of carbon dioxide trapped in ice cores taken as much as 2 miles deep from the great East Antarctica ice sheet.