Steve Miller Quotes

I never expected to make a lot of money from music.

When I was 15 I became a full-time singer in a band. At 18 I made my first record.

I was a studio engineer out in L.A. for about six or seven years, and I played sideman for different people, and played in bar bands. I was an old man of 32 when I made my first album.

I never thought of having platinum albums and winning awards. I just wanted to write songs and sing when I started out in the music business.

Whenever people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I was older, I would always say that I wanted to be a singer. When I was 12, I decided I would do something about it, so I started writing songs.

My plan was always to leave school and live in a flat with some friends, have a 9 to 5 job, and try to get as many gigs as I could. I wanted to keep writing and then eventually, in my twenties, head to a record label and hope they'd sit down and listen to my book of songs, sign me as a songwriter and maybe an artist in development.

I wanted to be a rock star when I grew up, or at least a singer/songwriter.

It's funny, when bands or younger musicians ask me: 'So, what does it take to make it?' Well, first explain to me what you mean by 'making it': Do you want to be a rock star or do you want music to be your livelihood?

So you know, my plan was that I was going to make records, and be a rock star. And that's really what I wanted to do. And I sang from the time I was very young.

Growing up, I always wanted to be a singer, and I've done that.

I'm desperate to start a career in music.

It would be a dream come true if I could just go from studio to studio and play solos.

I often thought that if I had been working with Mark James at American Studios, I would have had a pop hit before I ever moved out of Memphis. But that didn't happen.

All I've ever wanted to do was play music and go on the road and make records.

I want to do musician things and start making this my life. I want to learn - there's so much I have to learn about what it takes to be a recording artist, about what it takes to go on tour. I want to take this time and be a sponge and start meeting people and start - just start.

As I started to consider a career in music, I hoped for success, truthfully. I didn't imagine anything that would amass the level of the first record, but I hoped that I would be able to sustain a career.

I always wanted to be a singer first.

I moved to New York to pursue music.

As long as I can write songs, make a record and do concerts, I'm really quite happy.

I love the story of the guy coming to Nashville and then kind of getting set down and told, 'This is how the town works,' which, I've totally been there. But the coolest thing about 'Out of Style' is it's a song within a song.

When I was younger and had made the decision to make a career in music, becoming famous was something that I dreamt about.

I never had my mind set on being an entertainer in the music business.

I've had a great luxury in my career in that I became a very successful songwriter, which made it unnecessary for me to have to just consistently crank out albums and run off on tour for the sake of supporting myself.

I don't make as many records as other people do because I prefer the live side of it - and my records are so big that they keep me touring for years upon years and years.

I went to college to find myself. That's where I really realized I wanted to be a recording artist and started on the process of figuring out how to do that.