My first album didn't come out until I was 27, which in pop years is late, you know. But when it came time to arrange it, I became a kid in a toy shop. I had a harp and a saxophone quartet and a symphony orchestra. I went berserk for a time.
I played in the high school band. I was the one baritone saxophone out of 80 other people. No one could tell whether I was hittin' the right notes or the wrong notes.
As far as other instrumentalists, I used to love mellow sax players like Paul Desmond. I love piano.
I wanted an electric train for Christmas but I got the saxophone instead.
As a horn player, the greatest compliment one can get is when a person comes to you and says, 'I heard this saxophone on the radio the other day and I knew it was you. I don't know the song, but I know it was you on sax.'
I take my job as a rock and roll sax player very seriously. To do it the way that I must do it, I must be in good condition. The better shape you're in, the harder you can rock.
Now that I am much older, I have had a number of sax players tell me I was responsible for them playing sax. Some of them I have admired over the years.
I was a born rock n' roll sax player.
To me, the sax is rock n' roll, even though electric guitars kind of pushed it aside for a while.
Nobody played instruments in my family. My father got that bug and said he wants his son to play saxophone.
