Best 27 quotes of Tommy Shaw on MyQuotes

Around '75 when the recession hit, club owners started going to disco because it was cheaper for them to just buy a sound system than it was to hire a band.

As a solo artist, I just felt cemented in front of the mike stand. There was very little time to play with the audience and be a band member

By the time I did that third solo album, I'd finally learned how to do it, but I'd also learned that I liked being in a band

I feel like I have the greatest life an artist could dream of.

If I have an idea, I write it down, although I usually carry a little dictation machine with me because I'm too lazy to write

If music became extinct now, I dont know what Id be good for.

I like being on the road, living in hotels. While I've got a real nice house, I go crazy when I'm there.

I love the idea of stepping out of the band situation into a solo world with no boundaries, no expectations, where nothing is out of bounds.

I'm not the kind of guy who deserves to play a vintage guitar because I'm too rough on instruments.

I remember my first moment onstage was at a 4-H contest at the Pratville Junior High School cafeteria auditorium around 1965. I had my first electric, a Silvertone with the amp built into the case, and I won first prize.

I soon gave up instruction for self-teaching

It was more fun trying to figure out I Want To Hold Your Hand than to take lessons. By this time I knew basic chords

I've always stuck with Gibsons. I've had Guilds and Fenders, too, but I always wind up going back to Gibsons.

I was born in Alabama and my first live music experiences were in church. Every Sunday we watched regional gospel groups on television singing their hearts out

I wish I had a nickel for every song that I've left in the bathroom, written down on a matchbox, or just totally forgotten about

On acoustic guitar I tend to stay in the key of D for some reason. On electric guitar I keep basic: C, G, D, and A. The key of D minor is also real good for me.

Songwriting is the other weight on the opposite side of the scale from touring. They balance me out creatively.

Success is fickle, but creativity is a gift.

There were some older guitarists on my side of town, and I got to know many of them

We're kind of defined by our mistakes

We were playing popular music, but we were doing our own arrangements because we were too lazy to sit down and figure out the originals

When a song gets its legs and begins to come to me, this is the euphoric hook that keeps me wanting to continue.

When I became 16 I started thinking seriously about singing.

When I was about 3, my grandfather used to give me and my sister a nickel to sit out on the front porch with him and sing songs.

When I was a kid, I liked the newer music that was coming out. I have never really felt confined by any style of music. I would play in bands that were soul bands or that played standards - any kind of music that I enjoyed playing.

When you sign with a label, they do insist upon certain rights, and if you have a competent attorney, your rights will be protected.

You can have fun, but you also have to put on your thinking cap every day