So everybody is trying to play like Eddie Van Halen. I think it's rubbish. I think Eddie's great, but everyone's trying to do what he does and it doesn't make for a lot of interesting music.
I try to remember our relative insignificance on this planet and that these seemingly important things do not mean quite as much as we think they do.
I always wanted to merge heavy metal with pop music, but I think that because I grew up more with pop, the Beatles and the Stones, I tended to affiliate myself with those projects.
Following the example of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Seger, I wanted to have a band, a sound and a personality, yet maintain a singular position of being able to control and motivate the flow of things.
I was a good-looking, sexy guy. That certainly didn't hurt in promoting my music.
I was very humbled by the ‘one-man Led Zeppelin' comparisons.
I don't have to forsake my career as a musician. I know how to write songs - that's not going to leave me. But I think it's good to explore some other avenues.
I think if you're going to a concert and spending $15 for a ticket for you and your girlfriend, then you're going to buy a T-shirt, and you end up spending close to $100 a night, what with gas in the car and anything else to get you in the spirit of things, I just think that people deserve their money's worth.
Certainly, I don't believe in rebellion for its own sake. But I think if you strive to do something in an individualistic way, you just become a rebel by definition.
Studio work is very methodical, while live concerts must be very spontaneous.
If 'Emotions in Motion' comes out right, I can write the book on the formula rock star.
I was good at sports - basketball, football, tennis and dropped them all. At 16, I didn't care about sports anymore.
I have a great deal of respect for myself as a musician and a writer, even if I'm not doing it anymore.
But I don't let my bad feelings rule my life. I acknowledge them because I can't pretend they aren't there.
I'm not a poet. So the writing process is a difficult one for me.
I'd always envisioned ‘The Big Beat' leading off ‘The Tale of the Tape' with the biggest drumbeat the rock world had ever heard. I knew I had something good… but I had no idea just how good.
I'd gone to New York at an early age, and I got beat up a little bit, emotionally. So I thought I'd go home and go to music school.
You can't just say, 'God help me,' and he's there. It takes a little bit more work on the part of the individual, I think.
Most of us, whether we like it or not, we grow up and start having a different view of what we've done and who we are and where we're going.
It certainly is a positive thing… having a trademark.
