Walter Becker Quotes

Dick Clark really didn't make rock 'n roll safe for America, as many people think.

The press will naturally come and go as it has done with all artists, from David Bowie to Neil Young to U2.

They'll see it. And it doesn't matter if they don't. It's only Rock 'n' Roll. But I do intend to move more into the Mainstream. Marilyn Manson is just the First phase.

I'm not a big fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's just a personal thing, not an ego thing.

I remember Mitch Miller saying every week, This rock and roll stuff will never last. But one doesn't like to bring that up to Mitch.

My mom has every issue of 'Billboard' I've ever been in.

There's a lot of creativity in the industry, but I don't necessarily think that the most creative DJs or producers are always the biggest ones.

Everything ain't just about the radio.

I never thought about making music because it has to be a hit. There are so many better singers out there who are better trained in music, but I am probably the chosen one... I have not discovered any formula for staying relevant.

Metal needs to be exposed to more people, so it's good for rock if there's bigger bands.

Rock bands were never newsworthy. In the '60s and '70s, rock bands weren't in the newspapers because they weren't considered mainstream; they wouldn't sell papers.

Once you become famous, there is nothing left to become but infamous.

Right from the first time we went to America in 1968, Led Zeppelin was a word-of-mouth thing. You can't really compare it to how it is today.

It's such a cycle. You'll see a rapper drop a song, and next thing you know, he's gone.

When Phil and I started out, everyone hated rock n' roll. The record companies didn't like it at all - felt it was an unnecessary evil. And the press: interviewers were always older than us, and they let you know they didn't like your music, they were just doing the interview because it was their job.

As I said to Ringo, I was in a successful Rock N Roll band. He was in a band that changed the world. That's the difference.

There's always people saying that rock is dead, rock is over. People are always out to kill rock and roll.

In England, rock music very rarely infiltrates the charts, but country music even less so.

But hey, controversy - well, it hasn't hurt me in 50 years.

Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive.

It's interesting, because as a musician, I don't feel like I need to be on the top of the pop charts.

I think there are just a million interviews in anthologies with famous musicians that are about the music, and they're really boring to read.

If people are talking about you, that's great. You start making more money, that's great. You get to go to weird places, that's great. The music industry is weird, especially with the Internet. People are calling you all kinds of weird stuff, like 'jangly.'

The 'rock world' is a lot smaller than it used to be. It's doing a lot less things than it used to be. From Woodstock back in the day and Rage Against the Machine, no one sells millions of records anymore.

At some point around '94 or '95, 'Rolling Stone' said that guitar rock was dead and that the Chemical Brothers were the future. I think that was the last issue of 'Rolling Stone' I ever bought.