If you make music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings.
I did write a letter to the archdiocese who'd banned the song, Only the Good Die Young, asking them to ban my next record.
I sold my house to Jerry Seinfeld.
Artists - musicians, painters, writers, poets - always seem to have had the most accurate perception of what is really going on around them, not the official version or the popular perception of contemporary life.
I have been both praised and criticized. The criticism stung, but the praise sometimes bothered me even more. To have received such praise and honors has always been puzzling to me.
Most people are satisfied with the junk food being sold as music.
We are living in a time when American popular music is finally being recognized as one of our most successful exports. The demand is huge.
I keep telling people: Don't make me the poster boy for AA because I don't know a lot about sobriety, but I do know a lot about drinking.
More than art, more than literature, music is universally accessible.
I'm a history nut.
When I was a young musician, the only option available to pursue secondary education in music was to attend a classical conservatory.
I think historically America has been pretty tolerant. It seems when there's a mass influx from one place, that's when it becomes problematic for Americans.
Musicians now find themselves in the unlikely position of being legitimate. At least the IRS thinks so.
When I was 19, I made my first good week's pay as a club musician. It was enough money for me to quit my job at the factory and still pay the rent and buy some food. I freaked.
Why do musicians give so much time to charitable causes? The most humanitarian cause that we can give our time to is the creation and performance of music itself.
I don't know why people thought I was retiring.
In an age of incompetence, I've been able to last in this crazy business. I actually know how to play my ax and write a song. That's my job.
For whatever reason, not all people are born with the particular gift of being able to express ourselves through music. And, believe me, it is a gift.
You want to give people a reason to hate my guts more? I'm making more money.
When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created.
