Boots Riley Quotes

I did record a bunch of stuff, but the thing that usually stops me from doing that is that I'm a terrible singer. I made a bunch of instrumental music, and it feels really good, but just as a singer, I'm not good.

I play a bunch of instruments.

Cello is my first instrument, then piano, drums, bass, violin, recorder, saxophone, but I'd never play them live!

I wanted to be a multi-instrumentalist.

I'm not a trained musician.

I have a crazy background in music, both as a performer and writer.

I'm not a 'practicing' musician anymore. I played bass and guitar. I still pick up a guitar around the house every once in awhile.

All I've ever wanted to do is master my craft. I'm a singer, and I want to be a great singer.

I don't sing. I played guitar for a while. I'm not great, I'm not Lenny Kravitz by any means, but I do like to strum.

Being a musician is very easy. My house is full of musical instruments. There's a lot of music, always.

You can actually go to school and college to learn how to play and get technical with the electric bass.

I play, like, 12 instruments. Guitar, piano, harmonica, African drums... I'm working on mastering the accordion.

Playin' bass runs and singin' lead vox, is sometimes difficult, but I have three words for you: Practice, practice, practice!

I am not, and have no interest in being, a musician of any kind.

I was much more interested in the orchestra than the piano, but I did become fairly proficient as a pianist and my teachers felt I had talent and wanted me to become a good concert pianist and earn my living that way.

My dad was a musician. He was a singer and he played the guitar, so music was always around.

I used to want to be a singer and a musician for years, from 6 years old to today. I'm not really good, but in time I could be. I'm more of a singer than anything.

I'm not technically proficient enough to attempt all kinds of music.

I've often thought that my background in rock 'n' roll has gone to waste in film work. My background was that I was a rock 'n' roll drummer and I don't think I used drums in my first ten years of film scoring.

As far as music is concerned, I played music for a very long time, so I have a background in that.

When I was in a band after high school and in college, I didn't even play the guitar. I played the bass because I couldn't play lead, and I didn't have the gear.

I don't know how it got around that I play a lot of instruments. I really don't. I play the guitar and the mandolin.

I think every singer should get a formal training in music.

I've always been involved in music. Whether it be taking piano lessons or something, I always have.

I started making music... I guess I was 12, and I started playing 'Guitar Hero.' And you know, it got to a point where on expert, you can only exceed to a certain point. And so, you know, I was like, 'Let's play real guitar. Let's not waste more time.' So, I got my mom, I told her to buy me a guitar for Christmas, and I started making music then.