I grew up listening to everything. And rock and roll has always been a big, big part of it - as big a part of what I do as any other type of music.
It was the early days of Rock 'n' Roll in this country. We were all struggling to learn music, it might be Country, Jazz, Classical, Blues or even Rock 'n' Roll.
Punk is just like any other sub culture or music. Straight rock music has those elements. I grew up in a place where the punk rock kids fed the homeless in the town square.
But there are rock and roll fans all over this continent and all over the globe, really, and we're just set at marking the planet with Styx music until the day we die.
If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.
The problem for me, still today, is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. I'm not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage.
One of my problems is I'm not really sure if I slot into rock or not. I've always tried to combine world music, folk, jazz, blues and rock, and have done since Traffic.
Every so often, I feel I should graduate to classical music, properly. But the truth is, I'm more likely to listen to rock music.
I like pop music. I consider rock 'n' roll to be a branch of pop music.
The whole world loves American movies, blue jeans, jazz and rock and roll. It is probably a better way to get to know our country than by what politicians or airline commercials represent.
Elaine Miller: [in the middle of a class lecture] Rock stars have kidnapped my son!
XERB Disc Jockey: Rock 'n' Roll will stand man. Who's this on the Wolfman telephone?
Marty McFly: [sees that he has destroyed the huge speaker] Whoa! Rock 'n' Roll.
A lot of people do not like singer-songwriters, and a lot of people who like them do not like hard rock. It's either-or.
Rock helps me communicate directly with the people because rock doesn't lie, and people are fed up with lying politicians.
... It's the rare God who needs less stroking that a rock Star or poetician ...
Honestly I just wear what I like. You know why? 'Cause I can, I'm a rock star.
The period right before punk rock where people like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop were really strong.
There comes a point where it is just undignified to be a rock 'n' roll star.
Now, I don't know how they judge all that, but if anybody in the world deserves to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Ritchie Valens does.
As with all my work, whether it's a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I'm trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.
