Little Richard Quotes

"I never thought I'd be a superstar, a living legend. I never heard of no rock and roll in my life."

"Elvis may be the king of rock and roll, but I am the queen."

"Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that's not what I call rock."

"I don't think a woman has to act like a man to show that she has strength."

"Rock and roll offered me a platform to speak what I felt."




"A lot of people call me the architect of rock and roll. I don't call myself that, but I believe it's true."

"I was really kind of shy as a child. But I would do things for attention."

"He was an integrator, Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."

"I gave the Beatles their first tour - I took them to Hamburg before they ever made a record. I gave Mick Jagger his first tour in this country. James Brown was with me. I put Joe Tex in business."

"The grass may be greener on the other side but it's just as hard to cut."

"It's not the size of the ship; it's the size of the waves."

Chuck Berry Quotes

"I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint."

"Rock is my child and my grandfather."

"I was going to be famous if it killed me."

"Praise don't mean anything to me. I don't judge myself."

"I would sing the blues if I had the blues."

"I've always liked words. I even like some words that aren't in the dictionary."

"Play the songs they want to hear. That makes them feel they're getting what they came for."

"I wouldn't buy one of my records to save my life."


"Describe Elvis Presley? He was the greatest who ever was, is or will be."

"A song is a song. But there are some songs, ah, some songs are the greatest. The Beatles song Yesterday. Listen to the lyrics."

"Of the five most important things in life, health is first, education or knowledge is second, and wealth is third. I forget the other two."

Quotes About John Lennon

Kurt Cobain: "John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down."

Kevin Spacey: "Growing up, to me, he was a hero."

Meatloaf: "I met Elvis and John Lennon and I was an idiot. A complete moron."

Gary Oldman: "If one could have a wish, or an alternative life, I would've liked to have been John Lennon."


Moby: "If you look at someone like Joe Strummer or John Lennon, when you heard their music you knew that they wrote it and they cared about it."

Joey Ramone: "To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people."

Esai Morales: "I like the Beatles. They're at the core of my musicality. And John Lennon's my spiritual father."

Cynthia Lennon: "John was in constant need of proof of love and security and he was constantly testing people for that proof."

Rick Nielson (Cheap Trick): "Even to this day, if it would have been, 'Hey Rick, you get to play with Elvis, you get to play with Paul McCartney, you get to play with Mick Jagger, or you get to play with John Lennon.' John Lennon is the only one I would have picked out of that bunch."

Peter Fonda: "I truly miss the genius of the music of John Lennon, as I'm sure everybody does."

Ramones Quotes

Joey: "I enjoyed my life when I had nothing...and kinda like the idea of just being happy with me."

Johnny: "My favorite artists have always been Elvis and The Beatles and they still are."

Dee Dee: "I got tired of the Ramones around the time I quit and I really got into rap. I thought it was the new punk rock."

Johnny: "Radio is like television, all they want to do is push crap on the public."

Tommy: "We were trying to bring back fun music, bring back the essence of rock 'n' roll."

Johnny: "Two of my biggest heroes were my father and John Wayne."


Joey: "To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people."

Dee Dee: "Part of the privilege of being in a band is giving something back to the young people. If you can do anything for them, you should."

Tommy: "I think Paul Mccartney used to call himself Paul Ramon when he checked into hotels, and Dee Dee was a big Paul McCartney fan. He thought it was a laugh."

Joey: "The Eagles and the Captain and Tennille ruled the airwaves, and we were the answer to it."

Johnny: "We didn't sell a lot of records, but somehow we left an impression."

Joey: "Well, I think we're the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world."

Cheap Trick Quotes

Robin Zander: "Music is religion, it's a spiritual thing that transcends everything."

Tom Petersson: "My all-time favorite live record is The Who Live At Leeds. I think that's unbeatable."

Bun E. Carlos: "I'm class of 1969. My favorite bands were The Beatles, Rolling Stones and DC5...then The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Cream."



Robin Zander: "One of the reasons we're called Cheap Trick is because there was a performance of Slade, and Tom looked at Rick or Rick looked at Tom and said something like 'These guys use every cheap trick in the book.'"

Rick Nielsen: "Our band is rock n roll. We were never just a studio band trying to make everything perfect. It was never supposed to be perfect. It was supposed to be cool."

Robin Zander: "When you're young and you don't know any better, getting signed to a major label is what you're after. But you're not really prepared for the business aspect of getting ripped off, because that's what's going to happen."

Rick Nielsen: "Even to this day, if it would have been, 'Hey Rick, you get to play with Elvis, you get to play with Paul McCartney, you get to play with Mick Jagger, or you get to play with John Lennon.' John Lennon is the only one I would have picked out of that bunch."

Bun E. Carlos: "I grew up in a musical family and I had an older brother and sister that would play music all the tim
e."

James Brown Quotes

"The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing."

"I want to say to you, help yourself, so you can help someone else."

"I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know."

"I've been knocked down a lot of times."

"Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all."


(About Elvis Presley) "I wasn't just a fan, I was his brother. He said I was good and I said he was good; we never argued about that."

"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90% of their music is me."

"Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that."

"It doesn't matter how you travel it, It's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, It gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it."

"Sometimes, you like to let the hair do the talking."

"I don't really care what people think. I just do my own thing, I like being loud and letting people know I'm there."

Meat Loaf Quotes

"I never fit in. I am a true alternative. And I love being the outcast. That's my role in life, to be an outcast."

"Performers only go wacko when they fall from grace if they like the adulation more than the work."

I met Elvis and John Lennon and I was an idiot. A complete moron."


"You know, people think I named myself Meat Loaf, even though I didn't. And they think anyone who would name himself Meat Loaf couldn't have an IQ higher than four."

"I've had some real highs and some real lows, but I love the work so much that I never once thought of quitting."

I listen to everything just to see what they're all doing. I really do. I listen to 50 Cent, to Faith Hill, because I want to know what everybody's doing, I just want to hear it."

"You can decide what you want to eat for dinner, you can decide to go away for the weekend, and you can decide what clothes you're going to wear in the morning, but when it comes to artistic things, there's never a rhyme or reason. It's, like, they just happen. And they happen when they happen."

"You do not measure success by sales or dollars and cents. It is measured by the work, how you feel, and did you give everything you had?"

"There's no explanation for success. Success just comes out of life."

"I'm not built to be a celebrity."

Rod Stewart Quotes

"What I do now is all my dad's fault, because he bought me a guitar as a boy, for no apparent reason."

"Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house."

"Well, there's not a day goes by when I don't get up and say thank you to somebody."

"I've been out with some extremely beautiful women who have no sex appeal whatsoever. It really is a lot more than skin deep."

"I've got Ferraris coming out me bum."

"I've still got a brilliant head of hair, which refuses to lay down."



"I don't think people expect Bruce Springsteen to come out in a pink satin jacket, but Rod Stewart they do."

"Elvis was the king. No doubt about it. People like myself, Mick Jagger and all the others only followed in his footsteps."

"If there's one thing I've learned about women, which I try to pass on to my boys, it's listening."

"You go through life wondering what is it all about but at the end of the day it's all about family."

"There's no reason why I should retire."

Bruce Springsteen Quotes

"See, I was nine years old when I saw Elvis on 'Ed Sullivan', and I had to get a guitar the next day. I stood in front of my mirror with that guitar on, and I knew then that's what had been missing."

"When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other was my guitar."

"From the beginning, I imagined I would have a long work life."


"Adult life is dealing with an enormous amount of questions that don't have answers."

"The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with."

"You know the old saying: trust the art, not the artist. I think that's true. I think somebody can do real good work and be a fool in a variety of ways."

"It's a sign of strength to put your hand out and ask for help, whether it's a friend or a professional or whatever."

"If they had told me I was the janitor and would have to mop up and clean the toilets after the show in order to play, I probably would have done it."

"I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream."

"When it comes to luck, you make your own."

Famous Songs About Famous People

Going To California - Led Zepplin (1971): The lyric "...she plays guitar and cries and sings" is about Joni Mitchell.

Love Reign o'er Me - The Who (1973): Pete Townshend originally wrote this song about British singer Shirley Bassey, whom he had a crush on during his adolescence.

Killing Me Softly With His Song - Roberta Flack (1973): Supposedly inspired by a poem written by Lori Lieberman about singer Don McLean.


Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd (1975) This nine part song was inspired by former lead singer Syd Barrett, who ironically visited the studio while the group was recording. It took awhile to recognise him because no one had seen him for several years.

Hurricane - Bob Dylan (1975): A protest song about boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who Dylan felt was wrongly sent to prison in the late 60's.

Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton (1978): From the album "Slowhand", this song was written for George Harrison's ex-wife Pattie Boyd.

Empty Garden - Elton John (1982) Written and recorded after the death of John Lennon. The two artists were close friends, with Elton being named Sean Lennon's godfather.

Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses (1987): From their multi platinum selling album "Appetite For Destruction". Axl Rose co-wrote this song about his then girlfriend Erin Everly, daughter of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers.

Black Velvet - Alannah Myles (1989): This song is a tribute to Elvis Presley and hit number one on the U.S. Billboard charts.

More John Lennon Quotes

The wit and wisdom of John Lennon. Here are some of his best quotes.

On Elvis Presley: "Before Elvis, there was nothing."

On The Beatles: " we were a band who made it very, very big. That's all."

On Paul McCartney: " In 'We Can Work It Out', Paul did the first half, I did the middle-eight. But you've got Paul writing; 'we can work it out, we can work it out', real optimistic, you know, and me impatient; 'life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend'."


On George Harrison: "George's relationship with me was one of young follower and older guy. He's three or four years younger than me. It's a love hate relationship and I think George still bears resentment toward me for being a daddy who left home."

On Ringo Starr: "He was always a good drummer. He's not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass playing is underrated."

On George Martin: "George made us what we were in the studio. He helped us develop a language to talk to other musicians."

On New York City: "If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome. Where else? Today America is the Roman empire and New York is Rome itself."

On Yoko Ono: "It wasn't that she inspired the songs. She inspired me."

On The Sixties: "The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."

On Fame: "The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you."

On Himself: "I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people."

Brian Wilson Quotes

"Musically, I am the Beach Boys."

"I went through a lot of changes in the years from when I first started out."

"I couldn't surf, I never learned how."

"That's an important lesson; If you believe in what you're doing, don't let other people stop you."

"I'd earned over a million dollars by the time I was old enough to vote."

"You know Chuck, Buddy, and Elvis paved the road. The roots are deep inside us. It's the rhythm in our soul."

"A voice or a song can be so comforting to someone who really needs it."


"I think because I felt so sad I had to bring out my feelings, and try to create music that would make me and all my friends feel better."

"The Beatles were part of that whole competition thing. Rubber Soul blew my mind. It really made me wanna record; it made me wanna cut. It sounds like a collection of songs that belong together, and it was an uplifting feeling. So I thought I'd make a collection of songs, called Pet Sounds, together."

"Surfer Girl symbolized a mystical place that I have never been to but sung about. Maybe I was there, I don't know. I could have been and not known it."

"I'm not a genius. I'm just a hard working guy."

Elvis Presley Quotes

"When I got out of high school I was driving a truck. I was just a poor boy from Memphis."

"Since the beginning it was just the same. The only difference, the crowds are bigger now."

"Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away."

"The only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one."

"I've tried to lead a straight, clean life., not set any kind of bad example."

"The image is one thing and the human being is another. It's very hard to live up to an image."


"When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and in movies. I grew up believing this dream."

"When things go wrong don't go with them."

"I get tired of playing a guy who gets into a fight, then starts singing to the guy he's just beat up."

"I knew by heart all the dialogue of James Dean's films, I could watch Rebel Without A Cause a hundred times over."

(To the Beatles) "Look guys, if you're just going to stare at me, I'm going to bed."

"Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it."

"Those people in New York are not gonna change me none."

"I want to entertain people. That's my whole life. To my last breath."

Quotes About The Beatles

Timothy Leary: I declare that the Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.

Bob Dylan: They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go.

Billy Joel: The Beatles were the band that made me realise it was possible to make a living as a musician. When I heard the Beatles, I said "that's what I want to do".

Gene Simmons: The Beatles were a band, of course, and I loved their music. But they were also a cultural force that made it OK to be different. They didn't look like everyone else, and they still made the girls scream.

Dave Grohl: The three of us (Nirvana) grew up listening to the Beatles, then classic rock and punk. Somehow it all came together.

Liam Gallagher: I love the Beatles. What more can I say? I'm not gonna lie to you. They make me happy. And I think they were the best, and still are.

Steven Spielberg: I resented the Beatles at first because it wasn't a fad I discovered for myself. I wasn't a Beatles fan until I listen to the White Album and became an instant convert.

Leonard Bernstein: Three bars of A Day In The Life still sustain me, rejuvenate me, inflame my senses and sensibilities.

Johnny Ramone: my favorite artists have always been Elvis and the Beatles, and they still are.

Roger Daltrey: All you could do was to see them. We were backstage when the Beatles were on and you could just about hear a noise. It was just literally screaming.

Mick Jagger Quotes

"As long as my face is on page one, I don't care what they say about me on page seventeen."

"I have never wanted to give up performing on stage, but one day the tours will be over."

"People think they know you. They know the things about you that you have forgotten."



"I am not a librarian of my own work. It's a good thing not to be too involved with what you have done."

"I've managed to avoid tattoos so far."

"I don't want to be a rock star all my life. I couldn't bear to end up like Elvis Presley in Las Vegas with all those housewives and old ladies coming in with their handbags."

"I'm totally anti-nostalgia; I never listen to old Rolling Stones records. I'm not really interested in them. They're funny, sometimes, to hear."

"It's an overwhelming feeling, the audience. That must be why most of these people never give up performing. Because they just can't go without that sort of rush."

"People love talking about when they were young and heard Honky Tonk Woman for the first time. It's quite a heavy load to carry on your shoulders, the memories of so many people."

" The Beatles were so big that it's hard for people not alive at the time to realize just how big they were. There isn't a real comparison with anyone now."

"I must be careful not to get trapped in the past. That's why I tend to forget my songs."

Paul McCartney Quotes

"I definitely did look up to John. We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest."

"I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird."

"When we were starting off as kids, just the idea of maybe going to do this as a living instead of getting what we thought was going to be a boring job, was exciting."



"The issues are the same. We wanted peace on earth, love and understanding between everyone around the world. We have learned that change comes slowly."

"The basic thing in my mind was that for all our success the Beatles were always a great little band. Nothing more, nothing less."

"What I do is I look for the positive side. I'm the only guy who sat down with John and wrote all those songs. It's me. I've got to pinch myself, I can't believe it. I just feel blessed to have known him and to have experience his presence so intimately."

"I'm really glad that most of our songs were about love, peace and understanding."

"It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard Heartbreak Hotel I thought, this is it."

"I now realize that taking drugs was like taking an aspirin without having a headache."

"Nothing pleases me more than to go into a room and come out with a piece of music."

"The things is, we're all really the same person. We're just four parts of the one."

"There are only four people who knew what the Beatles were about anyway."