Randy Bachman Quotes

People like Frank Zappa were amazing for us Brits.

I wish that I'd written John Lennon's 'Imagine.'

My dad [Johnny Cash] went to the [Richard] Nixon White House and refused to sing "Welfare Cadillac" (instead performing the anti-war songs "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" and "Man in Black"). He protested the Vietnam War, but he went to perform for the troops with bombs dropping all around him. He had that kind of genius: a true artist's capacity for holding two opposing thoughts at once while being large enough to encompass all realities.

It was like Elvis came along and whispered some dream in everybody's ear

I thank God for Hip Hop because Marvin Gaye didn't have that and he was able to be that dope. For us to have that and more, I feel like it is up to us to be as dope as we can possibly be.

Bob Dylan is my idol. Everybody has that person growing up that made them see things a little differently than they did before, Dylan is that guy for me. My dad gave me the 'Blonde on Blonde' album on cassette tape when I was seven or eight. It took me a while to get into Dylan's vibe, but once I did, I never looked back.

Music is always a reflection of what's going on in the hearts and minds of the culture.

I am very proud of The Saints and I'm very glad that I've been associated with them all these years, but the next record is the best record... has to be the philosophy for any band that remains even halfway decent or vibrant, and that is kind of where my head's at.

My style is a very universal sound, which is very close to where I grew up.

Some of my films are known for the depiction of violence. I don't have anything to prove with that any more.

Hollywood looks to these young people now to say something to the world. I have nothing against that, I think a lot of people have things to say. But I think you need life experience.

I made up my mind that I was going to be just like Elvis. It never occurred to me that Elvis was a man. I just wanted to be him. He had a huge impact on me, right down to that black leather jumpsuit he wore on the '68 Comeback Special.

Bob Dylan is as influential as any artist that there has been.

I think that of my 21 symphonies, each has its own place.

Much as my Boomer friends will hate me for saying this, Kanye West is the New Dylan. Not only do Kanye's best lyrics match Dylan's prescience, highly inventive word-play and genius for storytelling, his indefatigable cockiness eerily channels Muhammad Ali.

You see Michelangelo and Picasso and you read literature. I had some innate inchoate yearning for that, but I never really saw where I would fit in. That's called art. And then something happened to pop music, which is that it became art under the hand of the Beatles, the Stones, and Bob Dylan and some other people.

Since music has never had a Rembrandt, we have remained nothing more than musicians.

They credited us with the birth of that sort of heavy metal thing. Well, if that's the case, there should be an immediate abortion.

The biggest influence? I've had several at different times - but the biggest for me was Bob Dylan, who was a guy that came along when I was twelve or thirteen and just changed all the rules about what it meant to write songs.

By denying its musical and artistic merit, hip hop's critics get to have it both ways: they can deny the legitimate artistic standing of rap while seizing on its pervasive influence as an art form to prove what a terrible effect it has on youth.

Rock n' roll means so much more to people; it enriches the culture. Also, it inspires people; there's no half-feeling. When I first got into it, I was inspired by people who had come before me, and I found myself in the position of handing that on.

Can a film really change anything? I mean, what was the last time? Maybe the Italian neo-realists, where they became the voice and the heart and the soul of Italy, a nation that had been destroyed. I don't know.

I felt I had an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of great soul musicians of the past, who made a lot of social and political commentary through their music.

I am consciously trying not to make it sound Celtic or African.

Rock and roll has probably given more than it's taken.