Pete Wentz Quotes

The danger of a rock band is repeating oneself. It's our greatest fear - that it evolves into the myopia of a semi-successful band that's in love with its own shadow.

I think that every band tries to mature their sound through their existence, you know?

I think most bands probably peak on their first album. We peaked on our third album. On the first album, I feel like I wish the production was a little better. I'll always hear a song I don't like. I look for what I could have done to make it better. It's always difficult for me to listen.

I think one of the things about writing in the studio is that the song hasn't matured, if you like, so quite often the vocals are early attempts. Whereas once you've taken it out on the road a bit, you learn more about a song.

I was for a minor amount of time but I was probably a better pianist at 15 than I am now.

It doesn't really change, actually. I think The Rolling Stones have gotten a lot better. An awful lot better, I think. A lot of people don't, but I think they have, and to me that's gratifying. It's worth it.

In the high-stakes and elitist world of music collecting and fandom, we operate from an ab ovo perspective. The seed, the first incarnation - that is the most pure, the most lauded. Minutemen trumps Firehose, Throwing Muses beats Belly, Joy Division over New Order, Operation Ivy ruled Rancid, Undertones instead of That Petrol Emotion.

With every album, I write above my ability, and my job as a guitarist is to catch up and be able to play it live. The thing about practicing is that once you master something, you don't have to remaster it. You just keep moving forward.

Ezra Furman And The Boy-Friends was a band with a specific mission - to be a really good rock'n'roll band. And we achieved it.

I think that my performances with Led Zeppelin got better with each performance and I think that our performances as Led Zeppelin Experience have also gotten better with each show.

Basically, a band's first record is them coming together and really learning everything, and then, after they're on the road and really become a unit, the next record slams.

I have a good time performing for girls. I think the guys will come when I grow up musically. We'll see.

We started the band when I was about 19 or 20. At that age, it would have been kind of hard to imagine a lot of the stuff that I've written. We were playing garage rock. I wanted to dash out three chords and scream. But if you do that for 20 years, what's the point?

A lot of people start by learning other people's songs, but the idea of singing someone else's music didn't excite me. I just wanted to write my own. It was really bad to begin with. It's improved slightly since.

Compared to other bands that have gone off the deep end with their sound, you know, I'm very confident. I did not go off the deep end; it just improved.

We've gotten better as a live band. The songs have been allowed to grow with our audience. I don't think I would have done it any other way.

Once you start out, you are kind of finding out who you are, and then by the time you get to the second album or you've been touring a lot, doing live shows or whatever, the sound starts to shift slightly to something that is more the true essence of what the band really is.

Fall Out Boy used to be my favorite rock band.

We're still evolving as a band. I think that's really important for a band to do, especially after being around for so many years.

I always feel I have a long way to go in my playing and my music.

I didn't pretend that I was good at writing music, so I wrote terrible music, intentionally. As time went on, the terrible subsided, and I started getting good.

To sing with Led Zeppelin has allowed me to offer the best places I could afford to my family and friends!

A lot of bands change, and a lot of bands break up, but only a few grow.

There's no musician who just wakes up one day and decides, 'This is what I want to do.' It takes some development.

We've always imagined ourselves as a rock band. We've always been a rock band playing the wrong instruments.