Al Yankovic Quotes

Mary Gauthier's great. Yeah, we've played a lot of gigs together. She's really wonderful.

I can't really say enough about Chris Potter. He is one of the greatest musicians I have ever known, and every second I have been on the band stand with him has been an absolute pleasure.

One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else.

Whoever hired me might've just heard 'Refugee.' Well, I'm not the secret to 'Refugee.' The secret to 'Refugee' is the song. But if somebody really good calls me up to play on something because they like the way I played on 'Refugee,' then I wind up playing on another really good song.

I am comfortable with anything I sing: jazz, gospel, classical. It doesn't matter. I can do it all.

When I joined the band, being that I was going to take this up as a profession, I realized that there were no two finer guitar players in the world that I'd rather play with.

I'm not loyal to one genre. I want to mix it up.

Americans can pretty much sing anything, whereas foreign singers are often limited in style, language, even composer.

It's very hard to find a pianist that's willing to play the so-called accompanist role on part of the program and yet be capable of being a great solo pianist that you would want for the big sonatas.

Mick says, Would you join the band? I say to him, Mick, you know I'd be there in a New York minute.

I think that a band that cannot limit themselves to one genre and can kind of do a lot of different things.

I can play in many sorts of categories because we've seen that with Led Zeppelin, all the acoustic stuff, and this, that and the other.

I want to play guitar, piano, drums, write songs for other people. I can do punk - I can do indie - but as long as it has my voice, it'll always be my sound.

I can rap, I can sing, I can do whatever, you know what I'm saying? I can do rock.

I can go from doing an electronic track to hip-hop to even folk songs. I think people like that variety in me.

You know, I am very versatile in music.

I will say one thing: Mick Mars is one of the greatest songwriters I've ever met in my life and had the pleasure to work with.

I think that's the great thing for us - we're a band full of songwriters, and we're capable of writing all kinds of songs.

Everyone tried to be a singer other than just a player. We had four voices in The Moody Blues.

I started composing when I was around 13, and back then, people used to say that I needed to be a composer or a performer, but I can't be good at both of them. I could never understand why anyone would say that. Jellyroll did both, Bessie Smith did both, and so did I.

I don't kind of want to be known as a one-trick pony who just does the adult-alternative song once a year that makes it onto the radio and people sort of think it's nice.

Everybody could write, deejay, rap. Everybody could do it all.

I've worked with some great people [in Star Trek], and I was paid handsomely, and it was a nice role. So the whole experience was positive for me.

I worked really hard to develop me as an artist and as a musician. I have so many different influences and play so many different instruments, I don't think anyone knew what to do with me!

For me, there's a tremendous challenge of singing with Faith, who, in my opinion is one of the best singers in the world. She doesn't get enough credit for being as good as she is. She's so beautiful that people look past her singing. But for a journeyman like me to keep up with her is a real tough sprint.