My dad and I are best friends. He's pretty much responsible for the way I turned out. He would provide a little artistic inspiration here and there in the form of a guitar, stuff like that.
I always knew he was selfish and self-indulgent and kind of lazy; those are practically prerequisites for playing lead guitar.
I think I'm a songwriter. I grab an instrument to make my body a song, but I'm not a player as such, maybe a little more on guitar, but certainly not piano.
Give me a strapless gown and a rhinestone-studded guitar and some 55-year-olds in my audience, along with their kids and grandkids. Don't give me 'boogie'!
I'm not into that Keith Richard trip of having all those guitars in different tunings. I never liked the Rolling Stones much anyway.
In my early days, I never used finger vibrato at all. I originally carved my reputation as one of the 'fast' guitar players.
I was down with Lucinda Williams and Mary Chapin-Carpenter. We did an acoustic tour, just the three of us, three chicks and three guitars.
There was just no way I could leave this little Martin guitar in my apartment overnight or even in the afternoon, and expect to find it there when I got back.
I always loved rock guitar. I just never put it together that that's what I'd end up doing.
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 wanted to hear the songs in the way that I had written them, which was very basic. All I wanted was drums and another guitar, and I was just going to sing.
Look what venison does to a goofy guitar player from Detroit? I'm going to be 54 this year and if I had any more energy I'd scare you.
Out of all the guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. They're cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap and are very small.
I had to be reminded that the guitar is infinite. It never stops teaching you, it never stops being difficult; there's an unlimited amount of things to learn, and you'll never master it.
You don't start to play your guitar thinking you're going to be running an organisation that will maybe generate millions.
Give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string; I wouldn't get bored anywhere.
I always lived with guitarists. When they would leave, I would just pick up their acoustic guitars and start doing finger picking and write.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm just a guitar player, and my job is to go out there and play and entertain and do my thing.
I played guitar in a band from when I was about 20 for three years. Then I sang a little. Then I started getting really busy as an actor and forgot about it.
I think Blank Generation holds up pretty well. You listen to that with headphones and there's a lot going on there with the guitars- it's the product of a lot of fighting.
I feel so lucky to have been in a group where it was a real band. This wasn't a singer and guitar player and some other guys.
