Steve Miller
I like most bands.
I kind of enjoyed having people complain that I wasn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than I think I'll like being in it.
I really enjoy working with luthiers, and have a couple of really old Les Pauls and one of my original Strats that I still carry on the road.
Growing up, I was always around adult musicians who played for their entire lives. So that's what I wanted to do, and I always had that in mind.
I never considered myself like a pop musician or rock star, because that didn't really exist when I started.
Our real business is the people who come to see us play and want to hear us play, so I have a very active career.
I think the audiences abroad are older and come from a more mature society. They have a different understanding of whats happening as art.
The audience wants to hear 'Rock n' Me,' 'Space Cowboy,' 'Living in the U.S.A.' When you start to play something else, you can feel the interest and enthusiasm go; the steam goes out of room. They are really 'Greatest Hits' fans and that's what they want to hear. It's disappointing that it's this way in the U.S.
Journey was a jazzy jam band when they first started. They were very out there.
My plan is to keep playing until I fall over.
I've recorded lots of projects, but just haven't bothered to release them.
When I was a kid this is what I was listening to on my car radio - Lowell Fulsom singing 'Tramp.'
I was exposed to jazz and blues and gospel and country music and rock, and I was the only kid I knew who knew about that stuff.
If folks really want music in their community they can do it very cheaply. It doesn't have to be a $50 million program. All we need is just a little real estate.
The record business has been so unpleasant and so bad for so long.
I like hooks and choruses, things people can sing to.
I don't even hear radio anymore.
For the longest time, I was uninterested in dealing with EMI Records.
Looking at Capitol's performance over a 22-year period, I figure they were focused three years out of the 22 I worked for them.
In some states, the population is pretty low and if 5,000 kids vote, they could completely change the political atmosphere.
Each time I hit the road to gig, it still feels like I'm going to summer camp.
I wake up every day excited to play.
Record companies, they're just like lemmings.
Generally what you see happen is these talented kids make a great album, but they don't have a chance unless they have someone working with them who has integrity. They get thrown out by MTV and radio in six weeks, and they don't get any time to grow.
We are living in a country that has taken the short view on everything. We have sold our future.
We have screwed with our environment. We have a culture that's going crazy, and it's all being propelled by the trillion-dollar advertising corporations.
We sold 1.5 million copies of the 'Abracadabra' album and 26,000 copies of 'Italian X-Rays.'
I was living and working with adult men who were playing a real art form. And I had been playing blues all my life. As soon as I formed my first band, we played Jimmy Reed stuff. So it wasn't like I was a white kid who was learning the blues from B.B. King records.
I've been blessed to work with so many wonderful musicians and engineers and friends over the years.
I was born to be a musician.
My father had a phenomenal knowledge of music; my mom's family were all musicians.
My dad loved Les Paul, and I wanted to be just like that.
By 1949 I knew all the studio tricks.
Being talented was a hard way to make it. But I made it on my talent and songs.
My strongest message is: 'Never give your songs away. Never sign a contract you can't get out of.'
You have to know what your value is. I started learning my value when I was 12 years old.
Very rarely can you bring someone new into a band and have them just fit perfectly, right away.
Ooh Poo Pah Doo' was a monster song.
I love the sound of vinyl best. My sweetheart and I love to put on a vinyl record, it feels and sounds so much better.
I played American football, but I did my best work with baseball.
The digital world is so convenient and nice, but just playing back a vinyl record is a much warmer, hotter, more present feeling.
As soon as I understood what was going on in San Francisco, which was in 1965 and '66, I immediately left Chicago where I was working in a nightclub that was being shaken down by the mafia and the police for payments. I mean, it was a real thug world.
Vinyl's like a really juicy steak compared to like a kind of tough steak or something. It's really good. And once you listen to vinyl and get a chance to hear it, I think anyone will enjoy it more than they will digital.
There aren't that many people that cover my music. It's kind of hard to cover. Everybody always has their own spin. The only guy who didn't, I think, was Seal. It just sounded like a bad version of 'Fly Like an Eagle.'
Actually, I have my moments, but I don't consider myself a grumpy guy.
I've always considered myself a serious guitar player, but I haven't been really worried about whether the public thought I was. That never was part of my record sales strategy.
Basically, as everybody that has had a taste of the record business knows, they are gangsters and crooks.
I've demanded respect for myself and my band and my peers, I've demanded full artistic control for my music, I advocate for artists and music education wherever I can. And I'm a nice guy.
I never set out to be a rock star, I set out to be a working musician.
All jazz comes from blues. Blues first.