Best 22 quotes of Tommy Bolin on MyQuotes

All the different styles I've played have really helped me as a guitarist and helped me develop my own way of playing.

Blues teaches you to develop coherent solos, because the form you're playing over is so basic. You have to develop leads that go someplace.

For me, practice isn't doing scales but doing things like writing, jamming with other people, or playing gigs.

I came in with a completely new perspective. I would write songs and they would pick tunes they felt were in the Purple vein.

I can't see. I used to wear glasses off stage. Now I'm thinking of getting a pair of contract lenses.

I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

I just started off on my own by learning the regular chords then the barre chords. Then I'd lean the notes that would go with them.

I learned a lot about lead; you don't have to blow your cookies in the first bar. It is much harder to be simple that to be complicated during solos.

I'll hear something in my head, then eventually play it. But it's a subconscious thing. Most of the time I really don't know what I'm playing.

I'll play drums a lot at home, and it will help my wrist action.

I started on drums when I was 13 and played them for two years. Then I went to guitar for a year, played keyboards for a year and a half, and went back to guitar.

I think the way I play the guitar is very percussive. I play a lot of rhythm chops as though I were playing congas or something.

I used to listen a lot to Rolling Stones records and play along with them when I was first starting. It's a good way to learn, jamming around basic music.

I used to try and take things in leaps and bounds. Now I've realized it's got to be step by step.

I want the new band to work together for a while, and when we're ready we'll invite every major record company to see us.

Lots of times it really doesn't matter what notes you play, but what notes come before and after a run.

My first joint I smoked onstage in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I smoked my first joint live.

Once I was playing and moving around and I fell right on my back. Just straight on my back. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life.

Right now I feel so inspired, it's hard to believe. I've written about 20 songs in the last two days. I'd gone about four months without writing a thing.

When I got to LA and was with the James Gang, I got the opportunity to write a lot, to play in front of large audiences, make some money.

When you come from the Midwest, you have a more open mind than if you come from the West Coast or the East Coast.

You're in direct contact with the music by having the strings under your fingers. It's not mechanical like a piano.