Phil Lesh Quotes

Our band was different. We were still playing rock 'n' roll, but we had an entirely different sound: just one guitar, but an organ and a saxophone.

Growing up, I was listening to a lot of Metallica, a lot of instrumental guitar music because I started out as a guitar player.

There are all kind of corners of the musical world that are deeply influenced by the Dead that one wouldn't expect. Lee Ranaldo is a crazy Deadhead.

At the time, 'Oxygene' was considered a totally 'far out' concept... What was 'in' at the time was disco, hard-rock, and the early days of punk... and moreover, 'Oxygene' was instrumental. And I was French!

I was borderline deluded to think something as outrageous as Semi Precious Weapons could have been mainstream.

At The Drive In came out in a period of time when Stereophonics and Limp Bizkit were huge. And there was this dark grey void - I'm not saying we filled it - but we were just a different colour at the time.

I was learning guitar as the band was beginning, at least in terms of being a lead guitar player. I could write songs, but I couldn't really play solos.

I knew that my love for the Sisters of Mercy, Lords of the New Church and that kind of stuff, was never going to lend itself well to a direct interpretation in Black Veil Brides.

It's hard to get a start as an instrumental guitar player. It's a much quicker route to be in a band, so I was always in a band and writing songs with singers, but I always had the dream in the back of my mind to make an instrumental record.

I had a band called Infectious Grooves back in the Nineties. That music was really a mixture of styles, and we had some stuff that was punk rock, ska, but then we had a lot of funk in there.

The Go-Go's were a frothy pop band. I wanted to do music that had a harder edge.

There is a pop element to what I do, but I'm going for a deeper, more left-of-center vibe. That's the sound I've always been looking for.

I am an old-school guitar player. I'm not an '80s-'90s sort of shredder who plays a million notes a minute. I am way more '60s-'70s kind of style, and I write very '60s-'70s.

I was a singing guitar player as a kid, and I found it really embarrassing, so I stopped singing and became a drummer.

A lot of the songs are very rock-oriented. My voice makes them country, and a lot of people think that is a strange combination... I think it creates something different and unique.

I don't see myself as a pop artist. Like, when you hear 'pop,' you're like, 'Oh, bubblegum, jumpy little girly stuff,' and I feel like, 'Uh-uh. That's not me.'

Our music is an answer to the early Seventies when artsy people with big egos would do vocal harmonies and play long guitar solos and get called geniuses.

I prefer a heart player; I prefer someone like a blues player, like Jeff Healey. Jeff Healey I think is tremendous.

When I was about 18, I really started diving into Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer Trio and some of those things that have jazz elements but also a pop feel.

The guitar player that I'm doing my solo tour with, Angel Vivaldi, he's been releasing incredible guitar albums and people just don't really know about them because instrumental guitar isn't really at the forefront of music these days.

I love instrumental guitar records, but I also understand that, as a listener, it can be difficult to get through a whole album of just that one thing.

One of my favorite guitar players and musicians is a guy named Jimmy Herring.

John Mayer is the epitome of the lead guitar player so I sent him an email with a bunch of my music and he sent back really detailed advice.

I'm a really big fan of Andy McKee - I think he's an amazing acoustic guitar player, and he's taken the torch from where Michael Hedges left off.

The Backstreet Boys are easy; they're cream. And then here we are, this nine-piece metal militia.