Rakim Quotes

Taylor being married and so on, that does evolve the dynamic on the road.

If you just do 50 to 60 shows a year, it's not that much time away from home.

I still like going on the road and performing, but it's getting tougher. I try to have my wife and the twins with me but it's getting harder and harder for them. They need to be in a home environment and not traveling with me.

I stick to myself now on tours. I don't go out party, drink, smoke, do drugs. It's a dry bus. No one is allowed to bring drinks on the bus.

After leaving Queen, I decided to stop doing those mega-four-month tours. I go out for a month, and my dog recognizes me when I come home.

People come into McDonald's two to three times a month - to extrapolate that to the cause of obesity is a real stretch.

I haven't given up drinking, just drinking a little less and going to the gym. I think when you get into your thirties you have to start. I'm not 18 anymore so you can't just be partying every day, you've got to have some kind of balance, so I try and go to the gym now once a year, that keeps me going!

I toured for 13 years, and it was very lonely, and it was hard work.

Let's face it: a lot of my material comes from the stuff that happens to me on the road.

My hours get kinda backwards. Most of the time, we're basing out of one town, flying out, doing the show, then flying back. And it's a pace that no one would believe, really. Unless you've done it, you really can't understand what it is. And if you're not really experienced and know how to do it, you will fall.

I was David Bowie-thin up to about 28, and then I discovered food.

Rather than missing home when I'm on tour, I miss tour when I'm at home.

The main thing is, I can't stay up late partying when I'm on tour. That's not good for my voice or my health in general.

I don't think I ever had a certain image of what touring was like... I think when you're young, you think it's very glamourous, but it's not.

Hydroxycut keeps me going while on tour. It's a grind on the road, and I'm excited to be joining the team.

Being on the road has about 2 1/2 hours a day that are really great, and that's when you're onstage. The other 21 1/2 hours are very boring... It becomes like a void, and we chose to fill it with all the wrong things.

We've always enjoyed touring, which is fortunate because we're always on the road. The most difficult part is that time passes by so quickly. It's hard to pay attention to your normal life because shows are all-encompassing.

I've had the worst relationships because with touring it's impossible.

We're on the road 300 days a year. There's no recovery time. It's a test of your physical and mental endurance.

Ninety percent of touring is a logistical maneuver, moving your body and everyone else's from one city to the next. You're like a piece of gear. Then you jump out of the box, get onstage, and play. That sounds cynical, but it sucks to move around so much.

I don't really put cars in my videos because I'm always flying or on a tour bus.

I love playing live, but our tours generally last about a year. I could never do this without the understanding and support of my wife. She's also a guitar player, and we knew each other before Dream Theater started touring.

I definitely think that touring is a really crazy lifestyle and makes it hard to live a normal life and have relationships and friendships.

The hardest part about touring is being away from family and friends. When you're gone for a long time, it's especially hard for me to remember to keep in touch with certain people because there's so much going on on the road.

Everybody thinks that touring is really glamourous, but I pretty much sit in a room all day. I have a sort of office where I do emails, and I go for a run, and then at the end of the night, I go to bed. It's not like some crazy party.