Dick Dale Quotes

I used to play quite a good lead guitar, R&B style. Clapton and BB King are heroes.

I'm a huge fan of Joe Walsh and a big James Gang fan. A lot of what I know about playing the guitar I learned from listening to him.

But people are now realising why I was playing bass with Hendrix.

I was more influenced by players like Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen than by the guys in southern rock bands.

Marc Bolan had inspired so many people to pick up a guitar and join a band.

I consider the guitar a tool for the most part. I do pick up the acoustic now and then, I certainly don't have any routine. Usually the only time I practice is when the band gets together. Hendrix has always been one of my favorite players, but I was a sucker for Nugent in the late 1970's.

Richard Lloyd of Television is one of my favorite guitarists. His mentor was Jimi Hendrix when he was just 14. Jimi was always pounding everything he knew into that kid.

My dad has been playing guitar basically all his life. He's sort of who got me into rock music.

I probably spent more time as a kid playing air guitar to Jimmy Page than any other guitar player.

I was inspired to play electric guitar from listening to a lot of Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and B.B. King, and that's always been the kind of music that I gravitate toward.

I love Eric Clapton and what he did with Cream; 'Spoonful' and 'Crossroads,' those are probably the coolest solos.

Charley Patton is the original inspiration. I didn't play anything when I was a kid. Then, when I was 20, I went into my mam's bedroom because she had a double mirror, and I wanted to see what the back of my hair was doing. She had an alarm-clock radio, and it came on with this old guy moaning and hollering, playing this strange guitar.

As a young man growing up in that era, I was very influenced by Hendrix and took to a wah wah, and I learned how to really use one effectively as Hendrix did.

As far as actual playing, Clapton - by far - is my biggest influence, and you can tuck Jeff Beck underneath that.

One of my all-time favourite guitarists is, in fact, a bassist - John Entwistle from The Who. He's one of my all-time favourites, the way he kind of expanded. I mean, he could have been a lead guitarist and been one of the best guitarists in the world. He wasn't even bass player; he was a bass guitarist, and he took the bass to another level.

My first influences for playing were Johnny Ramone and Jimmy Page, the same as everybody else. Joe Perry. The guys in Alice Cooper's band, whatever their names were. Mick Ronson from David Bowie. You know who really influenced me to write songs? Iron Maiden.

Jimi Hendrix is one of the main influences on why I wanted to play guitar. He really shook me. I think it was his whole style - the look and what he did with the guitar.

Growing up in Dallas, my first influences on the guitar were T-Bone Walker and Les Paul. T-Bone taught me how to play lead guitar behind my head and do the splits in 1951 when I was nine.

I know the guys in Metallica. I'm very honored that they were influenced by Deep Purple when they started, and they've always been very kind to us.

I got to see The Beatles a couple of times. In fact, I saw their last performance ever in San Francisco. The Beatles were massive to me - I learned so much from them.

Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' influenced me. 'Ziggy Stardust' influenced Johnny Ramone a lot, especially his guitar parts.

When I started, all I wanted to do was play like Chuck (Berry)

I think some of my inspiration came from just being around music. My family was into music. My uncle had his own band and my father use to sing in my uncle's band. If you want to go to the music influences we could be here all day. That's everybody from Michael Jackson all the way up to people in the game now that inspire me.

Growing up in Middlesbrough [in England], I listened to artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Howlin' Wolf. It was like another world. Something happened to me when I heard that music. It leapt out of the speakers and went straight into my heart. And I thought, "Right, that's what I'm doing."

I started out playing guitar because Jimi Hendrix was my hero, so my roots were really based on Jimi Hendrix and his style of playing.