Synyster Gates Quotes

Why would I want to sound like Joni Mitchell? I've got Joni Mitchell records, and they're great, and I couldn't possibly be that good.

I'm hard to imitate because I'm not gifted enough.

Composers are very individual creatures.

I've always been a good imitator. I love music. But I'm just not that original.

I'm a pretty bad troubadour. I'm more of a music fan who got away with making records.

Music is in my DNA!

You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel.

I don't try to make the guitar sound like the harpsichord or lute. That makes you end up being like a bad copy.

I was trying to find an original style that didn't sound like Tony Bennett or anyone else. So I prayed about it, woke up with this high voice, and by 1954, I was going to amateur nights and winning.

What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.

Fame and stuff like that is all very cool, but at the end of the day, we're all human beings. Although what I do is incredibly surreal and fun and amazing and I'm really grateful for it, I don't believe my own press release, do you know what I mean?

When Van Halen started out, there was no path to fame. We just played what we liked. Even today it always comes down to the simplicity of rock and roll.

I wrote music. I was in a hardcore band when I was 14, and I wasn't good enough to play anyone else's songs, so I had to write my own.

I always want to be as good in the part as I possibly can. But I make no pretensions of being the greatest actor in the world.

Hopefully everybody in the audience thinks, 'That's cool. I could do that.' I don't like the thought that they say, 'I saw the Beastie Boys last night, and they're mega-stars.' I'm a lot happier when the kids who come backstage or to the hotel try to give us tapes of what they've done instead of just getting an autograph.

I think the people who are saying jazz has to sound a particular way, or, 'What you're doing isn't jazz,' are just scared because they can't do it. A lot of them just aren't talented enough to do anything new, honestly.

One of the things that helped me to be confident is to be the kind of musician that I respect. I always liked musicians who wrote their own songs, and so I started writing my own songs.

I can't be Stevie Wonder; I can't be Marvin Gaye, but I can be the foundation that I think withholds that mold.

There are some people who are just plain great at making music. That's not who I am.

I'm a great songwriter, but I'm not the most talented musician.

A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.

Blessed the geniuses who know / that egomania is not a duty.

I definitely dislike pomposity and artifice. I hope that I'm not that. Once I write a song, it belongs to the world, and the way people perceive it, it's cool.

I honestly don't class myself as a songwriter. I've got 'musician' written on my passport. That's even funnier.

I don't want to pretend I'm any cooler or smarter than I am.