My desk is my drums.
Instead, of worrying if something will be a hit, bands need to go out and make good music, get a following, play live. That's how you make a career these days.
I just play music by listening and responding, so I don't know anything about writing songs or arranging and all of this stuff. You know, it's in my head, but I don't know how to get it out.
You'd walk by MTV an hour ago, and you come back, and it seemed like the same song was playing. I want to stay as far away from that as I can in my band.
A lot of people at the highest level, I never listened to. It was hard for me to listen to a whole lot of stuff. It didn't get there for me. Al Green, who's maybe my favorite male singer - to me, Al Green sounds like a saxophone player.
Horns really make a good band. They always create excitement when it's needed. They give the music a broader spread. It doesn't have to be all guitars and keyboards all the time.
We're all reflections of the lives we lead.
There's quite a few people who said they couldn't play with two drummers, and I don't understand it. It's no different than playing with two guitar players, two trumpets, or two anythings.
The older you get, the better you get. The key is just keeping the body up with the mind. The mind keeps developing when the body is breaking down.
You can think as Einstein as much as you want, but when you come in contact with another person as a work unit of some kind, you have to think as one. You have to figure out all the things that you've studied and that your mind is telling you, and then you have to figure out how to make it work as one, or you have a broken down team.
Whatever it is you do, practice your art; practice your trade. Learn as much as you can about what it is you're doing and apply that as much as you can, because the application of it is what is going to mostly get you where you think you want to be.
With my band, I feel comfortable anywhere in the world.
One indisputable fact is that whatever has happened to, and with, the Allman Brothers Band, we've persevered.
The music has a better feeling when you're responding to what's going on. Music is like playing handball, playing catch with someone, not playing golf. Everywhere the ball bounces is where you respond to it.
Truth of the matter is, jazz is American music. And that doesn't mean bebop. Jazz is really about improvising. All the music that's been created in America has been pretty much improvised... Whether it's hillbilly or rock n' roll for blues, it's basically jazz music... It's basically about another way of hearing what comes out of America.
If you don't get adventurous, you stay in the same spot; you don't really grow.
Reading music is good for training, getting things done in a hurry. It doesn't teach you nothing about feeling.
