Ralph Stanley Quotes

I am most proud that I stayed true to the music of my soul.

The most important thing is that you honor that musical integrity, whether you make music that sounds like ABBA or you make music that sounds like Void.

The way that I've always gone about making music, the rule of thumb, has just been to make what I love.

The way we're going about things and what we want to do, we feel it has to be a really pure essence of music. That's where you get the most out of it.

I think the main focus as a musician should be to play the music you love to play, and the rest is going to come naturally.

I tend to play in a way that feels natural to me. To me that's authentic for myself. I play by where I'm led by some sense of where I feel I'm supposed to be.

My intentions have been, and are always, to just really get behind what my ideas are musically and to just ride this thing out, cause it feels good, and I think for the most part it's good music. Even when it's not, I'd like to still search for something that could be even like a little bit mind-blowing or shocking to me.

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody.

That's what I've tried to do: I've tried to make music that I really love.

It's not like if I play in big places I won't be happy. But I don't want to start adapting to what's in style to make my music. I want to stay true to my roots, to keep making the music I love, that comes from my soul. And if there are people who want to listen to it, I'm happy.

Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to play music that I liked, and even when I was in cover bands when I was a teenager we only played cover tunes that we liked. That was the simple morality that I grew up with.

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm just writing songs that I like, and that's where I've always come from.

I have always made music with passion, love and honesty.

I'm totally open to exploring different types of music. I just have to always remember to be true to who I am.

When I perform, I like to immerse myself in the music, and I just try to get off on the diversity of music.

I wish I'd gone to music school or just started playing in bands sooner.

I grew up listening to everything. I have such a love for music, but I don't want to make the same album over and over again.

When I'm writing music, I'm not playing a character. I'm not Alice Cooper or Gene Simmons or someone like that, who has acknowledged that they are writing music for a character.

Music became my focus. At 13, I was jamming with my mates. At 15, I was playing clubs.

Any band that is out there chasing it is doing more destruction to music then someone who is out there playing what they truly feel.

I loved the Brazilian music I played. But this is finally me. For the first time I think it's really me.

I try to make my music interesting to me first, then hopefully other people will find it interesting, too.

Whatever my recorded output is, it's a reflection of a general love of music.

'Vagabond' is about owning where I come from, understanding the real power music had to transport myself with, whether that's busking in Europe or getting number ones.

Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe you could try some different approaches.