Jakob Dylan
If people want to talk about Bob Dylan, I can talk about that. But my dad belongs to me and four other people exclusively. I'm very protective of that. And telling people whether he was affectionate is telling people a lot. It has so little to do with me. I come up against a wall.Collection: Dad
You couldn't really like a bad guitar in 1960 'cause everybody was pretty good.
I'm a very upbeat, positive, optimistic type of person.
I've got a life that really matters to me, and that's because of the way I was raised. My ethics are high because my parents did a great job.
You have to have a work ethic, and you have to be educated in what you're doing. You have to take it seriously. It doesn't mean that everything you do has to be serious. But you've got to have the tools.
It's a little gross to put yourself in every song. I mean, how interesting do people really think you are?
I got to watch my heroes meet him and saw how they reacted, whether it was Joe Strummer or Tom Waits. It was peculiar. I'm so stoked to meet Tom Waits, and he's so nervous to meet my dad. It's a head spin.
To us, there was Bob Dylan, and there was dad. As for what he meant to other people, that was never glorified in our house. There were no accolades there, no gold records.
I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively - and there were a lot of choices - writing songs was king.
Songs are not better just because they're emotionally honest. To write a song well, you have to put some work into it and grind it out.
I do look at songwriting as a lot of work. I don't over-intellectualize music as a special medium that only some people deserve to do. I think it's something you do if you put the work in.
We've all had that experience where we hear a song that we've liked for many years, and we finally hear what the writer tells us what it's about, and you're often disappointed.
You might have a favorite band and really dislike one of the records. That's fine.
Writing songs is a trade like anything else.
My songs have always had hope and perseverance in them - I never write songs that have no escape hatch, no positivity.
Every song you write you think is the last one you're going to manage. You put everything you've got into the song, and you've twisted it and pulled at it and dug in and found a way to complete it. To get another one is the trick.
Some people just can't get over their own hang-ups to listen to my music.
I don't feel like I chose to do music as much as I made a decision to not stop doing music.
I'm in an area where I want to make music that I'm thrilled with, but, you know, I do have to worry about putting food on the table. I'm in that position where I cannot always be gauging what things might become. I have to look ahead, because I'm cautious.
If all you were left believing was what you were seeing, it'd be nothing but desperate. To have hope, you're going to have to imagine that there's something behind the curtain.
I'm not somebody who carries around a notepad and writes songs all day long. I don't imagine everything I think of is worth being in a song. So I tend to collect notes, and I set time aside to go to work and write songs.
There's only so many things to sing about, so what's going to make a song appeal to you more than someone else's is just a unique way of saying the same thing.
When I listen back to my music and everyone else that's out there, I'm aware that there's something I can do that the next guy doesn't do.
It's been said that I formed The Wallflowers to hide my name but, really, I've always wanted to be in a band - right from the day my friends and I soundproofed a garage with bed-covers for our first rehearsal.
If I'm judged against my peers, rather than anyone else we could both think of, then I reckon I deserve to make records.
The back story of a songwriter isn't important to me - I don't listen to music needing to know who the guy is.
I think there's always been hope in my songs, no matter how they've first appeared. I think there's always been a shred of hope in everything I've written 'cause I like that balance.
I don't like to sing things that just sound like they're going straight down the tubes, and they're circling the drain, and there's no hope. It doesn't feel good in any way to sing.
Those things interest me a lot in songwriting - the human nature of how people think, and the muck that we wind up in.
When you're in the middle of writing a song, you can come up with this whole web of stuff only you know how to get through. That's very entertaining for me to do that.
I liked getting the Grammy more than not getting it.
Tolerance can lead to learning something.Collection: Inspirational
My father said it himself in an interview many years ago: 'Husband and wife failed, but mother and father didn't.' I've got a life that really matters to me, and that's because of the way I was raised. My ethics are high because my parents did a great job.Collection: Mother
You have to have a work ethic and you have to be educated in what you're doing. You have to take it seriously. It doesn't mean that everything you do has to be serious. But you've got to have the tools.Collection: Mean
A guilty conscience means at least you have one.Collection: Wisdom
Bob Dylan led me to this kind of music - and it's his and ours. And it's nobody else's.Collection: Kind
I think that these are different times, and different things are available to artists, and certain things have become passé. You've already seen the outcome of a lot of things that seemed to have a lot of potential. We've already heard that, and I can't tell you if it made a difference or not. But we already know that artists can do that, and they shouldn't feel threatened by doing it. They're probably not going to change the world. They're going to change a few people's perspectives and maybe make somebody's day at times, if they can.Collection: Artist
I'm realistic. Getting to everybody is not the goal here. The people you can affect in any way - that's who you want to get to.Collection: People
I'm waiting for my kids to grow up and get into the Offspring and look at me like I'm a total candy-ass.Collection: Growing Up
I do look at songwriting as a lot of work. I don't overintellectualize music as a special medium that only some people deserve to do. I think it's something you do if you put the work in.Collection: Thinking
I see myself as a traditionalist. I like traditional things. I like things of substance and value that have been proven. Conceptually, as the songs started to come together, I followed that lead, which is the language I work in.Collection: Song
There's only one thing that's certainAnd that's everybody, everybody's hurtingCollection: Hurt
I do like a song that can look good on a page without even being sung. I edit and edit and edit.Collection: Song
I relate more to the descendants of Galileo Galilei and the Wright brothers than I do to anyone else you might mention. If you could name someone working today who I could relate to, I'd be both surprised and thrilled.Collection: Brother
I'm talking about the '60s really. People go interview these guys and ask them, "Do you still think music can change the world?" I mean, go talk to Graham Nash about that. What's he going to tell you? Ask David Crosby. These guys are still out there. They're playing their hits at Staples Center and those are really valuable songs. I'm talking about a couple of the guys who got knee-deep into really believing music had a great service beyond radio. I believe it did. And I think a lot of those songs are great.Collection: Song
It doesn't always have a shape,Almost never does it have a name,It maybe has a pitchfork, maybe has a tail,But evil is alive and well.Collection: Names
The trouble, dollIs not moving mountains, butDigging the ground that you're onCollection: Moving
Of course, I came up around music and fame, but this is still my first time experiencing it all. I'm still going through it like anybody else goes through it. But I'm still doing something I've never done before.Collection: Done
Music is something I really have a need to do - I don't seem to be able to stopCollection: Music