Mike McCready Quotes

I'm a huge music fan. I usually say that if I had been born with a musical inclination, it would've been great. The Beatles changed everything for me, and I wanted to be a journalist for 'Rolling Stone.' I'm a big music fan in a Cameron Crowe way, kind of in a spectator way.

I never played music, but it's an important thing ... the studying, the inspiration.

I've loved music always, and my music fire was lit by Elvis Presley, really, and all that was happening back then.

I don't collect the way other people do. Some people collect rare guitars, like, 'I have a '54 Strat worth $50,000.' And I don't collect the way Nash does. Nash has Duane Allman's guitar and Johnny Cash's guitar. I bought guitars because they sounded good. I played them, they sounded unbelievably good, and I couldn't resist.

The reason I moved to Nashville was because I was reading biographies of a lot of my country music heroes, and I thought it would be better to actually go where the history was, as opposed to just reading about it.

I'm very inspired by past music.

Dylan's relationship with Johnny Cash was the biggest influence on Nashville in my lifetime - they opened up country music.

Classic rock, psychedelic rock - I like to dig up old music and see what I can get influenced by.

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

'As' by Stevie Wonder - it's the greatest song ever written, bro.

We are just continually surprised and obviously happy that the interest in Queen and Freddie keeps alive. It's a constant source of pleasure for ourselves.

I've got all of the old school vinyls from the '70s - even further back, like the jazz music in the '40s, '50s, '60s. Then I've got all the '80s stuff underground, hip-hop when hip-hop really first started. The '90s stuff. All of the good stuff, because I'm really into music, and it helps me create new songs now.

I was interested in music since I was 14 years old. What really got me started was the first Led Zeppelin album... absolutely.

I used to watch MTV when they played music, and discovered Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey.

I learned a lot from Jimmie Rodgers when I started trying to yodel.

My guitar setup is inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I love to collect guitars made in the 1950s. I like preserving and playing them.

When I started playing music, all I was hearing was whatever was on the radio.

Before there was Bjork, there was Prince. That's a very simple encapsulation of my personal pop life.

The only thing I ever really wanted was a Strat .. I started playing guitar after seeing Jimi Hendrix on TV the day he died...then I got Deep Purples' Fireball album which was also a big influence .. I have a collection of more than 200 of them that includes Strats from every year since March 1954 - the first month the Strat was made

I'm extremely happy about music altogether, and the history that I've made. How I changed the world, music-wise, music over the internet and stuff like that.

The Clash were a major influence on my own music. They were the best rock 'n' roll band. Thanks, Joe.

I wanted to make an unashamed pop record. I became obsessed with Disney soundtracks from the '50s, so I decided to make my own.

The way I approach things is from an experimental folk music standpoint. I was obsessed with the Beatles as a kid.

Tina Turner gave me the highway blues.