Bobby Keys Quotes

Everything I know, I stole directly from Ace Frehley, Angus Young, and Keith Richards. That's how you learn.

I worked with George Harrison - who was the reason I started playing guitar.

I learned some chords and I started watching anybody I could, once I really got into it.

I was just learning to play guitar when Tracy Chapman came out. She wrote these songs, she played them by herself and I so admired her for that.

I'll never forget when I heard Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs for the first time. I was just blown away, and it changed my whole approach to guitar.

Kurt Cobain is one of the reasons I started doing music because I just loved to watch them rock out.

When I got my first guitar, I played along with everything I heard that had guitar in it, like the Ramones, Nirvana and Sublime, as well as whatever hip-hop and R&B stuff was on the radio.

I've always been the first to admit that Jimi was a very big influence on my early stuff.

Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.

Being on 'Nashville' and working with some incredible people like T-Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller - so many wonderful, incredible musicians that I've been blessed to play with and observe - that has continued to shape the process of arranging music, writing music.

Marc Bolan had inspired so many people to pick up a guitar and join a band.

It was my love for the guitar that first got me into music and singing. Growing up, I was inspired by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Damian Rice was a huge influence for me musically.

I see a young man playing 'Plaisir d'Amour' on guitar. I knew I didn't want to go to college; I was already playing a ukulele, and after I saw that, I was hooked. All I wanted to do was play guitar and sing.

Anyone who takes the craft of songwriting seriously I radiate towards. Spending time with Daryl Hall was a dream come true. I picked his brain a lot because Hall And Oats is timeless.

I'd love to be in Paul McCartney's shoes for a day. I'd love to pick up a guitar and write songs like he does. Or to experience what it might have been like to be a Beatle for a day.

I listened to country music my whole life. I started writing music when I was a teenager. It all came out country.

I'm a huge fan of Joe Walsh and a big James Gang fan. A lot of what I know about playing the guitar I learned from listening to him.

When I was 13, I was just figuring out how to play 'Eruption,' poorly, by Eddie Van Halen.

Freddie Mercury said years later that he got the idea for 'We Will Rock You' from 'Bits and Pieces.' I never knew that.

I love pop music. I listen to it; I think you can hear it in my songwriting and my album. I'd definitely say it's country-pop music, but it's country first.

I can't deny that Eric Clapton's and Eddie Van Halen's lead stuff has influenced a stack of people, but for me, it's the rhythm thing that's way more impressive and important to a band.

I think I always wished I could play guitar as well as Jimi Hendrix.

I'm very lucky; I have a lot of knowledge. My favorite band is The Beatles, so a lot of inspiration for my music comes from them, too.

Musically, I'm always inspired by the legends like Barbra Streisand.

You need to have spent your time from playing Top 40 pop rock in order to know how to play a song like 'Ritual,' a song like 'Absolution' or 'Idolatrine.' You need to know your classic drumming and your classic guitar.