Phil Lynott Quotes

I always just wanted to be the singer or the bass player in the band. I'd love to have a band, where I was obviously the singer, but where it wasn't me, it wasn't my name.

Then Bono arrived, and he meant to play the guitar, but he couldn't play very well, so he started to sing. He couldn't do that either. But he was such a charismatic character that he was in the band anyway, as soon as he arrived. I was in charge for the first five minutes, but as soon as Bono got there, I was out of a job.

When you're playing music, say for instance, you're playing a part of the band and you're looking at your music, your horn is down into the stand. This way, it's up and it goes right on out to the audience, you know?

My role in the Mamas and Papas was basically just to sing.

I think it gets boring (for the audience) for the lead singer to have a guitar hanging on them all the time.

All the bands I've played with have had dynamic front men.

It's only in the seventies that I put the sticks down and I moved to the front.

I think the drummer should sit back there and play some drums, and never mind about the tunes. Just get up there and wail behind whoever is sitting up there playing the solo. And this is what is lacking, definitely lacking in music today.

Although I'm a lead guitarist, I'd say that a good 95 percent of my time onstage is spent playing rhythm.

I've always been the DJ or the bass player or the drummer, somebody in the background. I don't think anybody who knows me personally would say that I'm particularly shy or introverted, but I'm definitely not like Mr. Attention.

When I played God Bless The Queen, I was wondering if they was gonna dig us, then quite naturally I'd go on and try to get it together.

And I think it's a real challenge to be up there sometimes with only a keyboard if they don't have a grand piano... and to try to win people over that way. It's really hard.

When Peter Gabriel left, we obviously lost a very strong stage performer. Phil hasn't replaced him; Phil's done a different thing.

I have my ideas, I have my music and I also just enjoy showing off, so that's a big part of it. Also, I like to get up onstage and behave insanely or express myself physically, and the band can get pretty silly.

I couldn't sing without a guitar. I like the way it feels to sing and be holding a guitar, even if I'm not playing it that much. All my idols that I grew up liking always had a guitar on them, but they didn't play it - Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello. It's like having a partner with you.

I don't have the ability to be a diva. I can't flaunt. I don't have that kind of stage presence. I think of myself as just a band member.

I don't like my voice, and I don't enjoy my singing voice; I do what I do to bring pleasure and diversion to the fans.

I sang and played keyboard, so I was virtually a statue at the back of the stage. I'm not complaining about that; I enjoyed that role.

I'm not trying to be flippant here, but I just play the guitar, don't I? That is my characteristic, and it's my identity as you hear it.

Joe Walsh is somebody who... he's a writer, obviously, and he's a singer-songwriter, whatever, but at the end of the day, when it comes to the Eagles, he's there to play guitar, and he's there to supply whatever is needed for that band, and that is what I feel with Metallica.

I fancied being a lead singer. I've always done a lot of vocals, but obviously, Freddie is the lead singer.

A rock band with vocals is what I always wanted to be a part of; in fact, it feels very natural for me.

When I want to go be Chickenfoot, I go out and I'm the artist. It's all musical.

There's a side to being in a band that some people embrace and some don't: the fact that you're performing and you care about how it comes across.

I don't play guitar. I sing. I'm the lead singer, of Cousin Billy. I also play harmonica, after a fashion.