Pete Townshend Quotes

What I play now isn't surf music. It's too powerful. I used to go through paper bags; now I go through brick walls. I play hard.

I've always wanted to smash a guitar over someone's head. You just can't do that with a piano.

My guitar wants to kill your mama.

I quit my band in New York City in 1969 and I got really angry at them. I got angry at one of my guitar players and I dove over the drum set and we got into a fight.

I love smashing stuff.

By the time I was 13, I was the only one in London, Ontario, who knew how to play rock n' roll.

My favorite saying is, 'If it's too loud, turn it up.'

When I plug in my guitar and play it really loud, loud enough to deafen most people, that's my shot of adrenaline, and there's nothing like it. That's what it's always been for me - to be the flame the tribe dances around.

It is fun to smash guitars.

I can totally identify with the younger kids. I'll never do what Jon Spencer did to me when I was 16, though. I made a tape with my friends and I put it onstage right near his mic stand by the pedal board and he pulled it out with his foot, kicked it to the center of the stage, looked me in the eye and stomped it to pieces.

One night Roger was in a foul mood and he threw his entire bloody drumset across the stage. The thing only just missed me - I might have been killed.

Ever since I was little, I've always liked to smash things.

If there's one thing I do, I will smash every fucking grammar school in the country.

This will not stand!

I'd love to have Jack White up. I think he's just a phenomenal guitar player. I'd love to see him play up close because he's got a killer voice, and he's a great lead player, too. That would be exciting to me.

Jimi Hendrix, he was a rock star. But he played guitar; I don't. I've just found ways to use words to make my mark in this history book.

I wanted to learn how to play guitar so I could smash it up and burn it. I was only a little kid, so that was my incentive.

Personally, whichever ball is lose, I will smash that ball.

My fans are lunatics. I encourage mosh pits, I encourage lunacy, I make music to let go to.

What are Slipknot angry about? Everything, man!

I like to throw bombs.

It's one thing to boo, but to actually pelt someone down below because you're upset a sporting event went a certain way is just so bizarre to me.

When I'm performing for 4,000, 5,000 people, it's a show. It's a rock n' roll concert.

One of the artists I most admire is David Lee Roth. I think his combination of humor, glamour, sex and energy is one of the best there is. He also writes great songs.

I should've blown more stuff up." -Coach Gleeson Hedge