Quotes

I don't think that bands that make it on their first album are as strong as bands that don't: there is nowhere to go but down.

My songs are like cheap Neil Young copies.

[on his radio show "Vinyl Tap"] I kind of just go in and talk. So I'm not really dead-on correct when I mention the date when I met so-and-so - it might be June or it might be July--or January. I know it began with a J.

[as a teenager, hearing his own song on the radio for the first time] You actually sit and listen to it and you're in awe and disbelief and you actually cry. We actually had tears. This is your [Elvis Presley] moment, or your [The Beatles] moment or your Madonna moment.

When I pull into a city and I rent a car and it's Nashville, or it's London, or I'm driving in the taxi to the hotel, and on comes one of my songs, it's like, "'Oh my God, they're still playing these songs on the radio". And you still feel tearful and very grateful that somebody still likes these songs that you made up.

The power trios changed the world for me and for every other guitar player. You got an amp, you cranked it up, you learned one riff, you were Eric Clapton. You learned a couple of power chords, you were Pete Townshend and you started writing songs. It was amazing. And it still is!

[on he and Burton Cummings in 1967] We went to England to be the new [The Beatles] and we were the new flops.

[on hiring Dale Anne Brendon and Anna Ruddick of Ladies of the Canyon] I told them: "[John Bonham], [Keith Moon and [Ginger Baker] did not play the drums. They attacked the drums. They hit the drums like they were hitting a guy in the face in a bar fight". Dale Anne and Anna said, "You mean we're allowed to do this?" I said, "Yes, you are" . . . We launch into a song and I look at [Kevin Shirley] and we're going, "Oh, wow! This is fucking amazing! These chicks are blowing the windows out of the room!"

I actually cannot wait to get on stage. I hate getting there early and sitting in the dressing-room and have somebody go in and say ,"You're going to start 15 minutes late because there's a lineup and not everybody is in their seats". Just let me on the stage. It's not nervousness, I just want to get out there and get into it. Music is my drug and I want that fix. There's nothing like the high.