John Prine Quotes

I am not a pop musician; I don't want to play bubble-gummy pop stuff.

I mainly like to do singer/songwriter kind of stuff.

I mean, there's times to rock and roll, and I love that too. But I think my first love is acoustic music.

From the beginning, I've always had a knack for catchy melodies. But I went through a period when I was trying to be rock n' roll and have a rock n' roll attitude. I was fighting my nature by trying to play really hard and sing really hard. But at a certain point, I realized that I loved syrupy pop music with tons of harmony.

I come from a jazzy, acoustic, folky background. Everything has to work with melodies; the words have to have meaning.

I never thought of myself as a rock singer. I was interested in songs like 'Heart Like a Wheel,' and I liked the others for about 15 minutes.

I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.

I have always believed that there is nothing greater than a life in rock n' roll - it has to be good rock n' roll - and I still think it is true.

I had different bands. I played with the Acoustic Warriors for the most part, without girl singers. It was the same kind of sound, acoustic guitar, bass, with violin and sometimes accordion, and the guys would sing, that kind of thing.

I quite like American music, like The Fray - I'm a massive fan of them - and The Killers. I also like more acoustic stuff like Ed Sheeran; I like this English songwriter James Morrison and another singer called Ben Howard.

The Byrds weren't rock n' roll guys. We were kinda like your Seekers... folkies who took it a step further.

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'm a huge Springsteen fan, and yet if either he or Bob Dylan had to be erased from the world's hard drive, I would save Bob Dylan's work for sure - he's the greater talent, and by leaps and bounds and skyscrapers and rocket blasts. But Bob Dylan is an alien to his public.

I love bluegrass music, I love acoustic music, and I try at the right times to push that a little bit.

I don't think I was ever designed to be a ubiquitous worldwide star. I'm a singer-songwriter writing quite personal songs. You're not supposed to chuck me on a stage with bells and whistles. There was a struggle ahead after that happened, and perhaps I was trying to write songs to compete in that arena.

I'm pretty sure in my older years, I'll be doing old-time flavored folk-mountain music.

What we admit to is being a rock n' roll band. From day one, I was a big Chuck Berry fan.

We've always been just an American rock n' roll band.

I wouldn't do a whole pop album. But I would do a musical.

I ended up starting guitar because I didn't want to just be the lead singer.

I've always wanted to write pop music. I never wanted to be cool or make a hipster record.

I loved a lot of different kinds of music, but for my own thing, I went for the singer-songwriters.

I've been writing a lot more folky, country type stuff. One of the reasons I wanted to write in the first place was because of Darrell Scott.

Singing rock n' roll - they called it singing for the devil. But we all wanted an opportunity to compete in the music industry, and that was the opportunity.

We're a rock n' roll band. We're more music and rock n' roll than politics.